From the editor
A visit by Vladimir Putin to the Uralvagonzavod tank and armoured vehicle factory in Nizhny Tagil yesterday and its coverage by Moskovsky Komsomolets illustrates the grip the Russian leader has on society and the media ahead of the staged election next month. The paper, known as MK, celebrated the event in true Soviet style, enthusing that the Sverdlovsk Oblast city’s residents prefer to call it Putingrad. The “special military operation” (SMO) in Ukraine has ensured that the factory workers will always be busy, Putin told them, and he also found time to touch on his other favourite topic, increasing the country’s birthrate.
Putin poses with workers at the Uralvagonzavod defence plant in Nizhny Tagil
Putin has been to Nizhny Tagil on six occasions during his tenure and usually visits the factory when he is there, the paper said. His previous visits in 2012 and 2018 were also linked to presidential elections. In 2012 he thanked Uralvagonzavod workers for their support after police brutally suppressed peaceful protests in Moscow’s Bolotnaya Square that erupted in opposition to Putin’s return as president having “castled” with Dmitri Medvedev. Dozens of people went to prison then in what was only the start of the spiralling crackdown on all dissent in the country. The workers at the defence plant were loyal, however, and Putin even named the head of the warehouse Igor Kholmansky as his representative in the Urals Federal Okrug.
“In 2018 his visit was less emotional, but the workers coped with their main task: Putin received the unconditional support of the people of labour. (True, Kholmansky was fired as a representative that same year, but only after the inauguration),” MK author Yelena Yegorova wrote. Today during the SMO the president’s visit to the factory seemed even more logical, especially as it manufactures the T90M Proryv that Putin has called the best tank in the world, she added. “It’s what our tank guys say, and our enemy also admits it,” he told the workers. Putin claimed that tank production has increased by a factor of five year-on-year and armoured vehicle production by a factor of 3.5.
There were no complaints about the increased workload or longer hours, according to the paper. “We’re prepared to work on this schedule for as long as it takes,” the workers reportedly said. “We have proved our support for the SMO not in words but in deeds.” Putin responded that he was concerned about the shortage of workers in the defence sector but also young people’s reluctance to have children. “33 years old! Christ’s age!” the president exclaimed to a childless couple who work at the factory. He told them that families should have at least two children, but preferably three. Russia’s population has declined continuously since he came to power at the end of 1999, and the ”SMO” with its never-ending casualties and exodus abroad has exacerbated this trend. Putin said he liked the idea of having the final of a beauty competition in Nizhny Tagil and also the suggestion to create a state award for “labour dynasties”.
“The meeting ended with emphasis of the fact that Nizhny Tagil is not called Putingrad by accident,” Yegorova concluded gushingly. “All its residents, not only the Uralvagonzavod workers, unconditionally support the president. It was the same in previous elections, and it’s obvious that the current ones will not be an exception.”
More such sentiment can be found elsewhere in the country. In Nizhnevartovsk in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug proud father Goshgar Piriev explained on TV why he had named his newborn son Vladimir-Putin. “When I found out I was having a son I told my wife let’s name him after the president,” he said. “So that in the future, after 20 or 30 years have gone by, Vladimir Putin isn’t forgotten.” In Rostov Oblast when asked why they support Putin if he will “send them to the meat grinder” several people expressed their love of their leader and the war. “Putin is the best leader in the last thousand years!” one man said. “The lands are returning to their native harbour. Kyiv isn’t Ukrainian, it’s an ancient Russian city.” “Why the meat grinder? It’s a war. He’s sending people to the war. To protect people, women and kids,” another commented.
If that is not enough, Putin has received a further boost from Tucker Carlson following his lengthy promotional interview. Carlson published some videos on X in which he praised Stalin’s subway station design and claimed a supermarket in Moscow had better prices than any in the United States, which would “radicalise you against our leaders” if Americans could see it. Carlson made no mention of the average salary in Russia, which is estimated to be about $14,000 a year.
Americans who do genuinely admire Putin and envy the lifestyle in Russia as they perceive it might want to consider that their opinions would certainly not be welcome under a Putin-style regime. The free speech they cherish would disappear overnight. Instead of seeing Tucker Carlson occasionally on social media, every TV presenter and newspaper journalist would resemble him, and have only words of adoration for the president, who would win every election in a landslide. Those who are ready to ditch support for Ukraine in the false pursuit of money savings, or to endorse Donald Trump’s recent suggestion that Russia should attack NATO members that don’t spend enough on defence, should be prepared for authoritarianism to spread further, including into their own lives.
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Sociologist’s fine for social media post changed to prison sentence
An appeals court has changed the sentence of well-known sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky from a fine of 600,000 roubles ($6,500) to five years in prison for “justifying terrorism” because of a post he shared on social media about the explosion on the Crimea bridge in 2022. The prosecution asking for the tougher penalty claimed Kagarlitsky had gone bankrupt because of the fine and failed to pay it, while his defence lawyer said he had paid the fine. Kagarlitsky said he would try to remain in good spirits and gather material for a book on life in Moscow prisons.
Ukrainian charged with espionage dies in custody
Ukrainian citizen Viktor Demchenko, 71, has died in a prison in Rostov Oblast where he was being held on charges of espionage, participation in a terrorist group and illegal weapons possession. Little is known about Demchenko except that he was from the town of Mospyne in Donetsk Oblast which came under Russian control in 2014. His trial had been under way since August last year. According to TASS Demchenko died from a stroke in a prison hospital in December, but the news only emerged now.
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