Heat

This week, as Europe swelters, I would like to draw attention to what is actually happening inside Russia.

Europe is in the midst of a heatwave which shows now end in sight. I will spare you the weather forecast in Celsius for Vienna for the next ten days or so. It is brutal, and even more so when you think about the majority of people who have no A/C at home, and all the poor kids who have to sit in incredibly hot classrooms because some idiot decided school needs to end in July this year, adding an extra week onto the academic calendar. This mom will be using sick days as needed, because let’s be real — no learning is happening in these temps indoors, and if the politicians and bureaucrats failed to make any changes because of historic buildlings, “it’s only hot for a few days each year” and other delusional BS, I am not willing to tell my kid she has to sit there and melt. This Wednesday is the senior prom, which in Austria means families attend too, and I found myself frantically googling the venue to see if it is has A/C, and then still picking up a new floor-length flowy dress off the clearance rack today rather than melt in my go-to ballgown built for winter.

Yesterday, two adult men drowned swimming in the Danube. I also swam in the Danube this weekend — in those locations designated for swimming without a current (they are offshoots of the Danube, like man-made small lakes, to be more precise). I don’t understand how anyone could drown except if they went in the water as non-swimmers, not understanding the depth. I did see one family doing this on Saturday, with a boy of ten who clearly did not know how to swim, and it scared the crap out of me. Honestly. Then a giant group of Ukrainians showed up and started cannonballing themselves into the water one after the other, shouting at the top of their lungs, and it took all my composure to hold my breath and not go full Karen on them, to not explain that as guests in Austria part of the deal is that we do not yell at the top of our lungs in public and get everyone else wet who simply wanted to sunbathe on the pier in peace.

In other words, the heat affects all of us, and I do hope one day soon those in charge will finally understand the connection between central and northern Europe’s resistance to A/C and its socio-economic impact. I read recently that even Vienna’s famous public housing (apartments owned by the city, provided to low income renters as a non-market rent, waitlists for years, a certain amount of cronyism does play a role in acquiring a lease, many are lived in by recent immigrants who qualify) finally caved and said that A/C will be allowed to be installed at the owners’ expense and provided they use an approved company. Can you see the kickbacks? All of this fuss is because authorities do not want the ugly A/C boxes dangling outside of buildlings. So we just melt inside pretty buildings instead. Nearly. Paris seems to be even worse at the moment. I am slightly obsessed with the videos of all the kids jumping off the bridges into the green-looking Seine. When it is this hot with no reprieve at home, at work, or at school, it is unrealistic to think an economy can keep on humming. I have been in hospitals in Vienna that are not fully airconditioned. To me, in 2026, that is unacceptable. I wonder how many more of these brutal summers, which are now the norm, it is going to take to see some actualy changes. I am not holding my breath.

Interestingly, I do not actually live in a buildling with A/C. But it is newly built, and has a cooling system, which promises to keep us around 10C cooler than outside. This morning, I woke up to a warning sign in the living room, and I emailed our building manager in a panic. She advised me to open my windows for a few hours (something I had been afraid of, not wanting to let the heat in), and reduce the humidity in the room. A few hours later, and it seems to be working again. So it is not a perfect solution but I am very grateful for it, and for thick outside dark blinds + curtains. Having grown up in Arizona, I can handle heat, I just cannot handle when the infrastructure isn’t built to accomodate it.

This week I would like to draw your attention to what has been happening in Russia. Ukrainian drones struck the major oil refinery in Moscow this week, and there was an enormous explosion (some say this particular explosion with the lid of a storage tank blowing off from the force was actually caused by a Russian-fired anti-drone missle). A nearby apartment buildling was hit, as was a shopping center. The sound of incoming drones buzzing was unmistakable in this working-class suburb of Moscow. Naturally, the airports also stopped working at this time, right in the middle of summer holiday season. One woman wrote online her flight to Moscow had been diverted and landed in Ulyanovsk. “Take a train the rest of the way” was the advice she received online. That train ride is around 15 hours, for perspective.

This video below shows Moscow residents standing outside their apartments in the early morning hours, clearly spooked by the possibility that their buildings might be hit. Nothing new for Ukrainians, this is new for ordinary Russians, and I think may have more impact than any western sanctions did to date. Losing Zara, Coca-Cola, and Starbucks is annoying but not life threatening. This is something entirely new, and it is happening now across Russia in the sense that Ukraine is increasingly showing that it can launch its drones just about anywhere in Russia.

There has been chatter online about how safe it is to travel to Crimea this summer, rumors of a ban on gasoline sales to individuals. This is a big deal because Russians who do choose to holiday in occupied Crimea do so by car. There is of course an information war online, and it is difficult to gage what is real and what might be Ukrainian propaganda, painting things to be worse than they actually are. I was surprised to see that drones are now attacking Russian resort cities on like Sochi and Gelenndzhik, meaning holidaying at home is also not safe anymore. This report below in Russian explains how authorities are trying to create an atmosphere of calm despite the ongoing threat of drones. This video shows an air raid alert on a Sochi beach today.

I found this comment to be particularly telling, and I will translate it below.

11 hours ago (today): Why are the Telegram channels silent about all of northern Moscow hearing explosions

16 minutes ago (today): I am in Voronezh. A few hours ago, rockets flew above my head, they exploded. We live like this. We cannot film it, we cannot say where they landed, everything is forbidden. We are sitting in fear. It has been like this for two years already in Voronezh. And other places, like Crimea, who knows how long. Therefore it is a weird question to ask why we are silent. What should we do? Why is everyone quiet for a decade already? What were we personally supposed to do? I don’t know the answer.

Today I also read that Russia was evacuating its famous summer camps for kids on the Crimean peninsula, and at first I thought it was fake news until I saw it reported here by Meduza. Russia can no longer guarantee the safety of kids far from the front lines. The war is in its fifth year. I would not say this is what winning looks like.

I was party to a discussion recently with folks still living in Moscow. Everyday life is more annoying without the drones — you need a VPN to make any of the messenger or western apps on your phone work, and then you have to switch off that VPN every time you need to order a taxi or do something local on your phone. You have to live in two parallel universes. But for the most part, those with good jobs were still earning. The people I heard this from, one working in medicine, the other in a luxury business that directly benefits from bypassing sanctions. The same goods make it into the country, just now using different, not entirely legal channels. The money still flows, the wealthy customers are still buying. Everyone knows the game.

But now, the element of danger has been added. The drones strikes that cripple Moscow’s airports affect everyone, not just those living near the refinery. I think it is fair to say this is the most uncomfortable point in the war for ordinary Russians to date. If gasoline suddenly starts being rationed, this will only add to the frustration. We may well see another immigration wave of those who thought they could wait it out, and realize now that was a mistake. There are also rumors online of young men being stopped at random and having their documents checked, some kind of informal mobilization, but I have no way to verify this. I would simply say I can imagine this may be happening in places where the authorities rightly believe locals will stay silent out of fear.

I do not think any of this leads to any political changes within Russia, but it does mean the pressure is increasing and the risk of a public reaction of some kind, even if it means just a local incident, even if a few people decide to speak out in frustration, Ukraine has clearly succeeded at this point in bringing the war to ordinary Russians, something that did not really happen until now.

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That’s about all I’ve got for today. I am trying to watch the World Cup when I feel in the mood, and when there are games in our time zone (!), but to be honest I am sort of waiting for the “good” games to start.

I would love some book recommendations for addictive beach reads, please, as holiday season is (hopefully) just around the corner. My unread pile at home is rather non-fiction and rather heavy, and at the moment life in general feels heavy, I would prefer a lighter escape in book form.

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Kid just called from school and announced she is melting and almost fainted five times. I know teenagers have a way of exagerrating, but still…this is unnecessary. The older I get, the less tolerance I have for entirely fixable problems! If you are in Europe, I feel you. If you are in air conditioned North America, appreciate what you have!