Many of Moscow’s citizens are taking a break from their worries and the backlash that discussing the war on Ukraine can bring
grinds into its fifth month, Moscow is a city doing everything it can to turn a blind eye to the conflict. It is a champagne-soaked summer like any other in the Russian capital, despite the thousands of dead and many more wounded in a war increasingly marked by acts of savage brutality.
A lifestyle Instagram blogger with more than 100,000 followers who was opposed to the war said that she had consciously decided to stop speaking about the topic – because of the official restrictions but also the backlash she received from subscribers. “The inability to influence what is happening makes people think less about global political issues and focus more on everyday subjects, on life here and now,” the authors write.
At a table by the window in Moscow’s Pushkin cafe, Alexey Venediktov is loudly decrying the conflict as “catastrophic” as the waitstaff look on with an air of concern. The former head of Echo of Moscow, the Russian radio station that was shut down after its public opposition to the war, has now been declared a foreign agent. “I was an enemy, now I am a traitor,” he says of his relationship with Vladimir Putin.
“I can’t tell you how many people have come to talk to me … dozens, maybe hundreds,” he said, saying that in particular he’s had a steady stream of pensioners since February. “People are under immense stress. Families are being ripped apart.”