How Putin Turned Russia Into a Barbie Country Sex tape art project loses funding in Scotland

It is common knowledge that the elections in Russia this weekend are nothing more than a farce. Even his tame rival Boris Nadezhdin was excluded; too many people had supported his candidacy with their signatures.

At the same time, Putin and his aides have ensured that no more subversive ideas from abroad are allowed to disturb the sleep of sincere Russian citizens. Just as Hitler once banned listening to enemy radio stations and imposed enormous penalties, Vladimir Putin, with the help of Chinese specialists, has ensured that the Russian Internet is de facto hermetically closed to foreign offers.

Nowadays it has become virtually impossible for private individuals to access so-called VPN servers; these make it possible to outsmart internet censorship. “The Soviet Union has returned,” Mazay Banzaev, who runs the VPN Amnezia, told the New York Times. “And with that also complete censorship.”

Putin has not only controlled the media behavior of his citizens, he has also realigned the economy. Oil and gas are no longer supplied to the West, but to emerging countries in the global south. Russians no longer buy German and Japanese cars, but Chinese ones.

The sanctions have not had any serious consequences for the Russians so far. On the contrary: the poorer population in particular benefits from the war economy. “Unable to satisfy public hunger for peace and normalcy, the regime is resorting to massive increases in social spending and support for the poor,” notes Andrei Kolesnikov, a leading Russia foreign affairs expert. “Russia has thus become Putin’s Barbie country.”

Thanks to Putin, the middle class can’t complain either. Kolesnikov again: “The members of the Russian middle class have now become connoisseurs of French, Italian and Spanish wines and users of the latest technologies. (…) For many people, this is more important than concerns about democracy.”

Putin has managed to portray himself as the one who made all this possible. Michael Kimmage and Maria Lipman also note in “Foreign Affairs”: “Many Russians now accept the following statements as doctrinal truth: Only Putin can win the necessary wars, Putin is the only one who can lead Russia, and Putin owns Russia’s future . Anyone who suggests otherwise is living dangerously.”

For Kimmage and Lipman, Putin’s inevitable victory next weekend is more than just an electoral triumph. “It should be seen as the final tribute to the remnants of the political past that preceded Putinism. The emperor sits on his throne and all you can say is ‘Hail Caesar!’

Even if the Russian president dies one day, there is a good chance that his legacy will live on. Has Putin succeeded where Hitler failed in establishing a thousand-year Reich? Not quite. Putinism has an Achilles heel, demographics. Although the government is doing everything it can to encourage women to have more children, the population is declining dangerously.

Kolesnikov gives figures: “The pessimistic government statistics assume that the Russian population will shrink by 15.4 million people in 2046 (excluding the four annexed areas in Ukraine). That corresponds to an annual loss of 700,000 people.”

And if we complain about the shortage of skilled workers in this country, last year there were about two million vacancies in Russia. By 2035 there could be about twice as many.

Despite several attempts, Putin has also failed to reform the Russian economy. To keep things running, he is therefore forced to constantly draw on reserves. “This shows that the state of the country is economically and politically fragile,” Kolesnikov said.

This vulnerability must be exploited, because the idea of ​​“Putinism Forever” is a nightmare that must be the West’s top priority to prevent. Russia, the Economist notes, has become “a nihilistic and unpredictable enemy of the liberal world order.” It is a “North Korea and Iran on steroids, armed with thousands of nuclear warheads.”