From his bunker, Vladimir Putin lashes out at both Ukraine and Russia to feed his fevered Soviet fantasy

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/03/2022 (1026 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“Welcome to hell,” read the slogan splashed on the crumbling gates of Grozny during Russia’s first catastrophic war in Chechnya. It could now apply to the battlefields of Ukraine, as thousands of Russian troops, tanks and deadly weapons pummel its main cities, and attack its largest nuclear plant.

But for those who remember Russia’s wars in Chechnya, it was also a warning of how far Vladimir Putin is prepared to go when he sets his forces against a designated enemy.

Russia has no qualms about obliterating inhabitants of Chechnya, Syria and Afghanistan. They are Muslim and have no common Slavic roots with Russia.

But Putin claims that Ukraine does not exist as a country, and is instead an inalienable part of Russia. So he is now faced with fighting on two fronts: a disastrous war with a country he maintains is Russia’s motherland, and an internal war of repression to conceal it from the Russian people — who are feeling increasing economic pain, exclusion from the international community, shortages of imported goods and shrinking access to foreign travel that echo the grim days of Soviet communism.

While Ukrainians flee in a massive exodus from the Russian assault, Russians are thronging airports for available tickets as European countries shut down flights from Russia.

Crucial to Putin’s internal war against dissent is a crackdown on the media, including a new threat of jail time for all media outlets that mention the word “war” instead of the euphemism “special military operation.” And a clampdown on the internet, to which more than 80 per cent of Russians now have access.

Even children are targeted in the propaganda war. The education ministry reportedly broadcast a nationally televised lesson to teach them “why the liberation mission in Ukraine is a necessity.” As violence against Ukraine ratchets up, Putin’s disinformation wheels churn faster to boost the level of hatred toward Russia’s “fraternal” neighbour.

In past wars, the Russian military had to deal with returning thousands of bodies of teenage recruits to their grieving and angry families, and concealing the injuries suffered by the wounded. Now, the military will allow for burying the dead in mass graves. But their families will not forget. And in spite of declarations that they died “defending their country,” families will know where to place the blame. As in past wars, maimed and destitute veterans who survive the war will turn up, begging, on the streets of Russia.

The media is not the only victim of Putin’s campaign against dissent. Venerable human rights institutions have been driven underground or forced to disband. One, the Soldiers’ Mothers Committee, is still operating, but under threat of joining a lengthening list of designated “foreign agents,” which advocates fear may lead to a charge of treason.

While the West anxiously wonders what comes next in Ukraine — and how far Putin will go in its destruction to serve his ends — the question also hangs over Russians, who overnight were plunged into an era many barely remember, and never expected to experience again.

There are so-far-denied rumours that the Russian parliament may soon approve martial law, placing the vast country under an official veil of secrecy, closed borders and deepening repression.

But Putin’s seeming strength is also his weakness. His most draconian measures cannot fulfil his dreams of recreating a Soviet Union today: he rules a dictatorship of one, with no massive state mechanism upholding a system that has no underlying ideology save for one man’s fevered fantasy of the past. And with every passing week his isolation becomes more apparent, leaving him ultimately vulnerable.

Olivia Ward covered Russia and the former Soviet Union as a Star bureau chief and correspondent for a decade, and is now a documentary filmmaker. Her latest, “The Arrest,” won a 2021 Amnesty International award.