War in Ukraine – Putin’s time machine from Hell

war in ukraine It is, of course, first and foremost a disaster for the Ukrainians. They are being massacred now over one man’s idea of ​​rebuilding an empire that ended long ago. But also for Russia and the Russians, President Vladimir Putin’s war is a disaster. The war has made clear that Putin is emerging, not as a reactionary ideologist, but as a dictator without chains, building his power on unbridled lies, brutal violence, and pervasive paranoia.

Because Putin is alive Not only in his capsule, as hardly anyone would dare tell him about the real world. He also lives in a time machine that set Russia back many years. The question is, where does Putin’s journey through time end? Does it end with an economic collapse that plunges ordinary people into abject poverty, as happened in the 1990s due to the shock of privatization in Russia under Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin? Does it end with economic and political stagnation, due to reform concerns, and all the power of the old-age department, which marked the period of Leonid Brezhnev in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s? Or will Putin’s time machine not stop until we go back to the tyrant Joseph Stalin and the time of terror in the Soviet Union?

Most people should contribute

many signs of the times, Less than three weeks into the war. And none of them are good. With this war, the seeds of both a possible economic collapse, a stagnation for the elderly, or waves of terror that might remind us of the Stalin era are sown.

Russian ruble It is down 40 percent since January, when war fears were already evident in global stock markets. Grocery stores have already begun to legalize the sale of some items, and storage is an issue. People are hoarding both because they are afraid of food supplies, and because they would rather buy now than later, because the price increase is great. Russian economists expect inflation of 30-40 percent this year. People are already noticing that they are isolated, and weekend trips to London and Paris are no longer possible. There is reason to fear the worst economic crisis in Russia since hyperinflation and the collapse of the economy in the 1990s.

Even if Russia They seem to confiscate the planes they lease from Boeing and Airbus, use them in local traffic, and then no longer have spare parts for these planes, which make up nearly 90 percent of Russia’s civil aircraft fleet. When Putin indirectly threatened to use nuclear weapons on March 5, he chose a place surrounded by flight attendants. There may be many vacant flight attendants next time, which Putin should put to rest, because they are down to earth.

Young and energetic It was crucial for Putin when he took power more than 22 years ago. It is now believed that he is seriously ill, has everything from dementia to cancer, and is receiving powerful medications for this. Putin is now 69 years old, and his loyal Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is 71. The head of the powerful FSB Nikolai Patrushev, considered by many to be the theorist behind the aggressive expansionism that led Russia to war, is 70 years old.

In five years they will All of them are 75 years old, which is slightly less than the average age in the Politburo of the Elderly headed by Leonid Brezhnev in the 1970s and 1980s. At that time, as now, Moscow was riddled with fear of economic reforms, despite the fact that they could save the economy. At that time, as now, the greatest possible control of the politico-administrative apparatus was more important than deregulation and economic efficiency. Many fear that Russia may once again face a period of old age.

Who can be punished?

scariest The impetus for the trip in Putin’s time machine is that we’re going back in time nearly 100 years. We are talking about the war against the middle class. That war was greatly intensified by the war in Ukraine. It is the middle class in the big cities that now fills the trains to Helsinki and the planes to Istanbul, Tbilisi and Cairo. Those who travel are not yet refugees, but are in fact political migrants, traveling far and wide to look back in time, and consider whether it makes sense to return at some point. They fear further political unification and terrorism after Russia actually went to war. And it is the middle-class children who are beaten and humiliated by the police when their bravest demonstrates against the war.

In 1929, Joseph Stalin began Its five-year plans to manufacture and assemble the Soviet Union shocked. While Stalin’s attacks on the middle class were calculated, targeted, and economically and ideologically motivated, Putin’s attacks on the middle class are unintended. But they are still among the Russians so far that, first of all, goes beyond that. They are the people who are no longer allowed to buy Apple or IKEA products, or to travel to Europe. It is their sons who are deprived of the future, because Russia will be isolated politically and economically for a long time. They are the first to discover that Putin, under the pretext of uprooting the Nazis from Ukraine, is far from re-establishing Russia. Putin controls the time machine from Hell.