I took my girls to London for a mini-break this week over the school fall break. It was great to get away and spend a few days in the city we once called home. I found myself thinking a lot about Russia. I would like to share here, today, bits and pieces of what I hear from a variety of sources about what life is like there now. I am sure I am not alone in feeling this deep sadness in not knowing when I will ever be able to go back. As one friend put it, “it could be tomorrow or it could be ten years from now. That’s the thing with Russia. You never know.” So with the inability to gather firsthand information, I find myself asking many questions, trying to soak up as much of an impression as possible. With nearly all foreign press out of Russia, the western world has no more eyes and ears on the ground. And as the months march on, it feels like our collective knowledge of Russia is frozen in time somewhere around January 2022. But life there goes on, for the vast majority who didn’t leave when their country invaded its neighbour. I am so deeply curious about what life there is like now, in the city I once called home for so many years, which I once loved like no other.
The billboards, we know. The patriotic symbols. The recruitment posters asking if you want to be the next hero of Russia. The men in uniform near train stations, some of them missing limbs. The things you only see when you take a closer look. Will mass mobilisation happen? Probably not, because the Kremlin is using a different approach. It is paying soldiers so much to sign up and go to war that wives across the country are begging their husbands to sign up. Soldiers are reportedly (don’t quote me on the figures) being offered multiples of an ordinary provincial Russian salary, something to the tune of several thousand USD per month. You don’t need to pull able-bodied men off the streets when you can pay them to serve and they come, willingly. Modern Russia has a financial system built in large part around consumer credit: mortgages, car loans, loans to buy TVs and computers and even washing machines. The average Russian male will know exactly what he can do with the money he will get from the army. I suppose no one thinks they will actually be the one to come home in a body bag (or not come home at all, as is more likely the case — if a body is delivered home, a payment must be issued to the relatives. It is far more economical for the army to declare a soldier MIA). So for the moment, men in big cities do not live in fear of being drafted.
But this being Russia, you live with the knowledge that everything and anything can change overnight. But that isn’t a Putin invention. That is just Russia at its core. Has always been, and will always be, some would say. There is a melancholy that hangs in the air of all these conversations. I sad acceptance and an almost disbelief when you recall how things were twenty years ago — full of hope for the future (at least in an economic sense) and a feeling of progress, moving towards rather than away from the west.
The all-powerful TV seems to have taken on an even greater role than before in the information bubble. One does need a VPN to access to many social media apps and sites. The harder it is to access alternative sources of information, the easier it is to turn on the colourful screen and be entertained. Hours of programming about people with six senses and talkshow guests wearing T-shirts with ridiculous slogans in English like “Go Vegan. Eat Pussy.” Yes, really.
The luxury stores have closed. This surprised me, as there has been so much talk about brands finding ways to circumvent sanctions and continue to operate in Russia. TsUM, once the Moscow equivalent of Harvey Nichols, is now selling second-hand designer handbags. Other shops on central Moscow lanes are simply boarded up where Prada and Gucci once were. But this doesn’t stop the appetite for luxury goods. After all, there is still plenty of money floating around Russia, and fewer places were it can be spent, legally. So the country has returned to the 1990s, with shuttle traders smuggling in designer goods from Italy in Putin’s favourite brand (yes, really) which are then resold at huge multiples of their Italian retail prices because scarcity/smuggling/those men in the system want to dress the part now more than ever. So personal shoppers are busy, and the work became more challenging, and the profit margins must reflect the increased risk. You would not believe the prices being paid, but then again, trapped, cash-rich audience and no opportunity to go themselves to Europe? Bringing the goods in is so risky I heard they even travel on one plane and the tags and bags on another.
Airports are now calculating the $10,000 limit on what you can bring into the country by calculating the value of what Russians are wearing on them coming in. This means wealthy men and women better leave their watches and jewels back in Europe, or be able to produce a receipt that the fur coat was purchased in Russia. Some prefer to cross land borders, although one can be questioned anytime, anywhere. Kids who live abroad are told to only speak Russian amongst each other in Russia. There are certain bureaucratic steps in a Russian’s life which one can only do in Russia, like applying for an internal passport at the age of 14, or men renewing their passports in their mid-40s.
Those who work within the system and chose to stay have seen their individual careers pivot towards India and China. Not surprising, really. Others stayed because their lack foreign language skills and couldn’t imagine starting over mid-age somewhere else in careers that don’t easily transfer abroad. The war in Ukraine is not talked about anymore. It is accepted as a status quo. Like the weather. The talk is of the war between Israel and Hamas. And the first snow.
There is supposed to be a presidential election in Russia next March. They say the campaign may kick of in December with some patriotic concerts and a few hand-picked “challengers” of various politicians of very limited popularity chosen by the Kremlin to give voters the illusion of choice. This podcast (in Russian) talks about e-voting, which will be used in Moscow (home now to 10% of Russia’s entire population) and several other cities. This means that your passport details are entered and then you vote. Now try telling a Russian that their vote remains confidential. Voting takes places over several days so that calls may be made, say for example turnout was too low, they call the boss of a company which is close to the state and remind him to tell all his workers to go vote. They know who for. That part doesn’t even have to be explained.
The expert explains that for a real election, you have to present your vision of the future. Putin doesn’t have one. Therefore there will be pomp and pop concerts instead. The people have I suppose already long stopped expecting to be promised a vision of the future. Most are simply trying to survive the present. That is what I do not have a good feeling for. I don’t know how most people are managing, financially, I do not know how many dead Russian soldiers the average Russian knows. These would be the questions I would most like to ask, could I be a fly on the wall of a Russian shopping mall or train station.
Social media from Russia these days is totally inward and a-political. Art show openings. Walks in the autumn leaves. A TikTok blogger actor sharing his story of sobriety, another man blogging how he is working himself out of debt after his wife left him. Beauty, health, cooking, cake decorating. The usual. With a giant hole were your real opinions on what is happening in the world and around you and in your own country would be, should you be able to speak freely.
Navalny tweeted about not being able to see a dentist. I wondered to myself if anyone would even read his cry for help. In the context of two wars raging, it seemed like a self-inflicted problem.
The FT reported yesterday Austria’s Raiffeisen bank made nearly 50% of its profits this year in Russia, while in the same article quoting the bank making the most ridiculous claim that regulators are the reason why the bank has not left Russia yet. Which made me so upset because do they really take us all for fools? Why would Raiffeisen leave Russia at all at this point? I am told it is the bank Russians use when they sell assets in Russia and need to get the money abroad. You can imagine how lucrative that business must be at the moment. There are many wealthy individuals now living outside of Russia thinking long and hard about what to do about property they still own in Russia. Sell now at a low price? Wait until prices rise? Will there be confiscations? And if you sell, you end up with a pile of rubles, and those rubles need to be turned into Euro or USD. You need a bank to do that for you. One that can still work with other western banks. That doesn’t leave many players.
Schools have introduced additional patriotic education. History books have been rewritten. Some parents try to creatively schedule other activities for those hours and pull their kids out, some private schools may avoid this, but for the most part, if you stay in Russia and keep your kids in Russian schools, you do this knowing this is what they will be exposed to, much as you perhaps were if you are old enough to remember school in the USSR.
In short, life in Russia goes on, too. It is insular, it doesn’t look outwards, it is focused on the distractions of ever-day life and the new reality. No more EU vacations, but Asia and Dubai are open. Russians appear to have adjusted to this new reality. They are no longer in mourning. There are requests to send rubles here and pick up Euros there. Barter. Moving money around is problematic, but not impossible. You need your friends now more than ever. Things that were always fixed with bribes or a fee are still fixed in that way, but the rates have gone up. Trapped audience.
It certainly sounds like a not insignificant amount of people in Russia are making a lot of money in this new economic reality. And they face limited options as to where they can spend it, meaning now more than ever, more of it will stay in Russia.
Back here in Austria, they will show later today on ORF2 (Heimat Fremde Heimat) a segment about a Ukrainian family now in Lower Austria, originally from occupied Kherson, as well as interviews with me and Jenia. I will share on social media once I have a link.
This Thursday we will be speaking live at a panel discussion on the ongoing challenges Ukrainians in Austria face. It is free of charge to attend and there will be a long Q&A session so please do join us!
I came home to 24 Hofer cards from Mario which I sent out yesterday to my waiting list. I now have only a few empty envelopes, and hope I will manage to fill those this week.
My Telegram group remains active, and I am trying to set boundaries, which is hard. Sometimes I get asked the strangest questions which really can be answered in less time than it takes to send me a message by simply asking Google. I explain that is not what I am here for. I am here to help in real crises situations and to answer personal questions one cannot ask a group, but not to be the info desk. That part is hard. I try to tell myself everyone is different, working with people is always going to be challenging.
Regarding Christmas, we will not be able to do the Secret Santa chocolate deliveries like last year because the group of volunteers who actually did all the deliveries are not available this year. Their organiser cannot help, and without her, there is no group. So I am leaning towards a party for kids in Vienna (how, what, when, where still totally open), and perhaps approaching some of the upscale Ukrainian-owned restaurants now operating in Vienna to see if they might like to host a fundraising evening (e.g. a holiday social event and some of the proceeds go to Cards for Ukraine). Those two ideas are currently floating in my head with no real idea how to bring them to life…
That’s it for now. Thank you for reading and for your ongoing support. In the UK I barely saw any Ukrainian cars (two), heard Russian/Ukrainian very rarely, and coming home I realised what a big contribution little Austria is actually making to supporting Ukrainians who fled the war. Ukrainians also cannot simply show up in the UK, they have to apply for special visas. Another barrier to entry. And the prices. They could not survive at the prices I experienced (central London caveat). Here, it is very, very challenging, but there I was left with the impression it would be impossible.
"towards a party for kids in Vienna" Absolutely. A thought: ice skating! https://www.christkindlmarkt.at/eislaufen/#eistraum-am-christkindlmarkt :)