« The Daily

The Cost of Dissidence in Russia

2022-04-19 | 🔗

Nearly two months into the war in Ukraine, many Russians have gone from shock and denial to support for their troops and anger at the West.

What is behind this shifting view, and what does it mean for those who go against it?

Guest: Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter

Background reading: 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
What does a good day and Greater Fort Myers sound like here yeah the Wadi founder of Ombu Yoga on Captive Island. I wanted to create a space where the benefits of yoga in a deep respect for our island saying good, meet practising yoga. here is so especial Winder miserly, moving and breathing on the beach they re says an ocean sounds of the Gulf of Mexico. Naturally come the body in court. The mind. Come unwind in South West Border go to visit, Fort Myers dot com and see what lies ahead from the New York Times. I'm Sabrina Tavern easy. This the Daily NEWS.
two months into the war in Ukraine. Many Russians have gone from shock and denial to support for their troops and anger at the west. Today, my colleague and hunting of ski on, what's behind that shifting view and what it means for those who go against it. It's Tuesday April nineteenth. So in time we ve talk before on the show about Russians, views of the war and at the start of their worse and protests around the country. But fundamentally most Russians didn't really believe that a full fledged war in Ukraine was happening.
So catch us up on what's been happening inside Russia since then for your right. Initially, it wasn't even made clear in the state media that what was going on was a full fledged invasion put in.
When he announced this on the morning of February, the twenty fourth described it as a special military operation to protect people in that Eastern Don boss region of Ukraine, and that's how the tv news presented it. You know you didn't really hear anything about the fact that Kiev was being hit by air strikes and at the suburbs of care for being attacked by russian troops. So for a big part of the population. In those early weeks of the war, it wasn't even clear that their country had mounted a full fledged invasion of their neighbour right. There were other Russians who did see what was going on and there were protests around the country and dozens of cities in total, more than fifteen thousand
and people were arrested and then, on March, Fourth Putin signs a law that puts in place really extraordinary penalties for countering The official Kremlin line on the war in Ukraine in basically anyway. So of course, Russia has been limiting free speech for a long time, but this was really taking it to another level. According to that law, someone publishing something described as fake news about the war in Ukraine can be sentenced to up to fifteen years in prison, fake news, meaning anything. That's not what the Kremlin says happened exactly so even calling this a war as opposed to a special military operation, which is the officially approved terminology in Russia, can get you thrown into prison. So this
as a huge impact both on media coverage of the war inside Russia and on any protest movements right. So it sounds like it really raises the stakes for someone to go out and protest, because you could potentially face fifteen years in jail for it. So what happens next so what's happening in parallel? Is the war that's being fought on the economic front? Of course, almost immediately after the invasion began, the West put in place some really severe sanctions against the russian economy really much more,
intense ones than most people had anticipated. So in those early days and weeks, it really felt like the russian economy was teetering on the brink of collapse in a regular Russians were seeing their savings evaporate with the rouble, the russian currency, losing about half its value against the dollar. You saw empty supermarket shelves. You saw runs on basic goods like sugar. At one point, the russian government even had to put out a stay
Meant assuring people there was no shortage of feminine hygiene products in the country because there was a run on those types of basic goods as well, and that was really kind of a shocking experience for people who had become used to their country being integrated into the global economy. So a lot of ordinary Russians are feeling quite a bit of economic pain and feeling quite stung. Yeah and one thing that all this data is it really played into Vladimir Putin's narrative about Russia being under attack by the West, and that was an easier story to tell in a situation which you had western sanctions, targeting not only russian oligarchs or officials, but really too many. It seemed the russian people as a whole. But then the rush
economy doesn't actually collapse the sun Your bank manages to stabilize rouble and actually bring it back to where it was before the war began. You don't see that and buying that I mentioned earlier relief out for many Russians things are really all that different from the way they were before economically and I think what that does is sort of activate this kind of patriotic impulse in many Russians. where their seeing the whole world, to put it bluntly, ganging up on them, and yet they keep going. Russia is surviving and its active that Putin really quite definitely active aids.
for his own purposes. Here, in what way, while the russian state Media russian state television, is starting to really intensify this us versus them. Narrative There are no longer talking about it as a limited special operate. In eastern Ukraine, they are increasingly talking about it. As an effort to really take all of ukraine- and very importantly, they are talking about this as effectively a war against the West being fought on ukrainian territory, the idea being that Russia has to fight this war on you,
indian territory, or else Russia itself will be destroyed. We're just seeing more and more of this kind of really shrill existential rhetoric on tv in prime time. Every night to the war in Ukraine is really about the west and about confronting the west, which was inevitably going to come and try to destroy Russia exactly and that's a narrative that was laid out most dramatically by Putin. In a speech he gave on March sixteenth the Electric River global crises you could give us. This was a video conference with senior regional officials political decision
as lovelier, I see Trump's useless foremost economic squeeze. The lads who bly says that the policy of containing and weakening Russia, including through economic isolation, is a deliberate long term strategy. He says the leaders of the West no longer hide the fact that sanctions are not directed against individuals or companies. Their goal is to strike a blow against our entire domestic economy, our social and humanitarian sphere against every family and every citizen of Russia. Collective news up with the discolored national speak louder
no way with, but you do not sit so he says the West is trying to provoke civil confrontation in Russia, and he says the goal is a little sugar. I see the destruction of Russia well, and so then he goes from there. To probably, you know the scariest moment of the speech where he starts talking about traders. No blue Boolooroo, I can bullet ceased. He says she did it. Most of the Atlantic Eastern, but rode any people, let alone the russian people, will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traders, but don't give up ready. You press the rippling. It is because we do is illegal shivered and will simply split them out like a fly that flies into their mouths by chance,
What did John used used to me in your question with so much you sure you don't got creep none of them. I am convinced that such a natural and necessary self purification of society will only strengthen our country, solidarity and readiness to respond to any challenges. When Putin talks about scum and traders who see referring to exactly what he means anyone who is against him right now, anyone against the war? You know you said earlier, as we just heard, that the West is trying to split our society, to provoke civil confrontation in Russia and thus destroy Russia, He saying anyone who's on the side of the West right now. Anyone who's on the side of peace is
playing along with the west's efforts to destroy our country from within and is thus a potential trader. So this kind of versus them language. That's really at a level we have not heard before from Putin sets us up for a new and even darker phase in the country. Domestically we'll be right back. This pot cast is supported by Santander private client for clients seeking financial guidance. They want a partner who can help them shape it. Better
it sure. As the sun and air private client, you have access to Santander Investment services with a team of on demand, financial consultants, providing support and advice. Private clients at sont and air can rest assured. Their financial plans are customized to achieve their version of prosperity, sont and heir private client, a step above and banking at Santander Bank, dot com, slash, private client, I'm a ten and I'm one of the producers of the daily, Most memorable episodes I worked on was about a single mom named Yolanda, who I got to know over a few months during the pandemic, when she was potentially going to be evicted from her home during one of our calls told me that her older son had actually decided to leave college, to work and help her pay. The rent, listen t Yolanda in that moment really Crystal As for me, how? innovation notice. Yes, it means the threat of being forced from your home, but it can also mean an impact next generation
on the daily. We tell personal stories in part to help all of us better understand how current events shape real people's lives. Our team is you want to put in this kind of time and commitment to a single story thinks this I present the New York Times. So, if you I keep hearing stories like bees. The best way you can help us make them is by subscribing to the New York Times. Thank you so internet talked about a new darker phase in Russia domestically. What were you referring to? Well, I mean over the years in the Putin era, we ve seen this paranoid streak in russian society about you know: people looking for a hidden spies and traders, and then this Putin speech. It really brings it out into the open it really legitimize as it and remember he's speaking in that speech to senior regional officials. So it kind of sounds like an order right right, it's kind of
telling lower level officials all the way down. The chain across Russia's regions that it's time to really keep an eye out for these traders, tat. It was time to basically start new wave of repression against descent. So how do we see that play out in time? The most dramatic thing that you're, seeing more and more in on social media and in the local media is people are denouncing one another so You know. Not only are you seeing universities, firing, faculty members or expelling students who speak out against the war, but you're also seeing individual
reporting on one another is drastically mighty, led Anton trainer scheme of things, and I recently interviewed several people who had been informed upon by their fellow citizens, I'm just a doormat guy. One of them is named Marina to Grover she's, an english teacher, fifty seven years old away out on somehow in Ireland. In the Pacific. About four days is the principal chairs of the gospel yeah, so she was telling me she'd been frustrated by all the aggressiveness in russian society stemming from the invasions coming from all that vicious propaganda that we talked about and she found a video on Youtube where kids were singing about peace in russian and ukrainian, and she decided to show that in school showed that in her classes and evil, they knew what they were drawn up, the double
She said that was for some reason. This video somehow aroused something in them tat. I had not anticipated, I thought would be all the other way around that it would call them down. But they somehow got all excited and we had a conversation seems that those it has got. What I mean is that is only just was of great. You look at the issue as she said that a group of five or six eighth grade girls stayed behind after one of her classes and started quizzing her about her views on the war. She told them things like you. Brain is a separate country to which one of the girls replied not anymore. She told them that look at the whole world is supporting. Ukraine are all of them wrong. You know she reminded them that it was russian troops, so that went into ukrainian territory it. She said this is called aggression and a you know. We'd know that she said all this, because she learned afterward that this
conversation had been taped secretly by someone who was in the room and then made its way to the police in well. So then what happens to her, which lay at the deal? I see this as development. So, a few days later, the police come to the school, bring her to this police station she's interviewed they write a report. She's tried in a court room she's found guilty of discrediting the russian armed forces under that law that Putin signed on March forth
She was fined about four hundred dollars, which is more than a month, salary for many Russians and requires the beaches of crisis faced man. She says all this happened in just five or six hours within five or six hours, that's very very fast. Yet she told me that this was madness. He had brought the causes that lead the people around her had plunged into some kind of madness. She D crime. Russian society is being in a kind of frenzied state where people know with absolute certainty that they are right, that everything that their government is doing is being done. Come
athletes, and she even told me about people she knew who she thought had shared her critical point of view about what was happening in the country ass. She said that she saw them suddenly turned in favour of the war in favour of what the Kremlin was doing, and she said that this scared her we'll talk or destroy women at the top of your room. You, although I believe that she told me was all so upsetting to me. I just can't tell you. and what's happening with Marina now in time. Well, one of her former students raised money to pay that four hundred dollar fine, but she refused to take the money. She brought it to a local dog shelter and said she was gonna pay that fine herself she was also fired from her school. I wish she had taught for thirty years, she's now appealing the fine and her dismissed,
and she told me that we should give us a buying yeah, because nice and obviously just now She understands the risks of speaking. in this environment, but that she feels she has no choice. But to do that because This is a time where people who disagree with what's going on, can't be silent. She told me to get any lack of Malta. I know it's a long shot, but I'm fighting here. I am Ermengarde spicy by sharing, and on how common is Marina story. I mean how many people have been ordered on and arrested for speaking out against the war or or against the russian military, were certainly not talking about a mass movement of any kind by
This is a time right now where it seems like almost every day, there's a report in the russian media about something like this happening. I spoke to OECD Info, which is a rights group that helps people who get detained for political reasons, and they told me they ve never seen anything like this. They ve never seen so many cases of people reporting on their fellow citizens, so the thing is, we don't actually have run numbers here of how much this is happening for all. We know it does still seem to be isolated incidents, not a mass phenomenon, but each of these cases that gets into the media that gets amplified on social media sends a real message to Russians everywhere, which is. This is not a time for a descent, so Putin still so strongly controls how people see what's going on controls the narrow
if of Russia, but you know how long can that last? well you're right domestically. He seems to really have the situation in his grip, but there are several question marks. I'd, say the economy is the biggest question mark. You know, as we discussed for now. The russian economy has avoided collapse, but it's still pretty close to the precipice. The mayor of Moscow this week said two hundred thousand jobs in Capital alone are at risk as a result of international companies pulling out of Russia, oh you know, the central bank chairwoman gave a speech and we She warned that right now the russian economy is basically surviving on reserves and that those reserves would run out in the coming months. So part of it is all these really severe sanctions.
Their impact has been delayed by actions that the russian government has taken, but those consequences will still play out and then the second x factor of course is the war right now we are seeing the Russians apparently begin that offensive in Eastern. Crane we ve been waiting for several days. How is that gonna go if Putin manages finally to six
you're kind of a resounding victory on the battlefield that seems shirt and help him at home, whereas if the russian military continues to get bogged down, if it becomes ever less clear what exactly the Russians are fighting and dying for here. That could also spark some domestic discontent and if either of these two things go south I mean the economy completely goes off the rails or the war continues to go terribly wrong. What will that mean for Putin and what that means? or Russia and well. We do have to anticipate that the harder things get for Putin domestically in economic terms and in Ukraine on the battlefield, the more he'll see a reason to crack down even harder domestically, and we just don't know where russian society goes at- that
You know you have to remember this is a society that, for thirty years, has been reaping the fruits of globalization that has been living in more or less environment that had more freedom of speech than Russia had basically ever before. That was more interconnected, chew the world than ever before and with this war. All of that
has suddenly gone away. How society reacts to such monumental dislocation? We just don't know so. For the moment, Putin appears to be in control, but that's kind of a snapshot in time. We're talking about and looking further down the road. The picture remains very, very murky. Hm Anton. Thank you. Thank you for having me hmm
we'll be right back. Super Micro is a leading innovator of application, optimized servers and storage systems from the edge to the data centre to the cloud construct, optimized eighty solutions from the industry's broadest- Folio building blocks systems which allow you to create a customer solution based on new requirements. Super makers, range of servers and storage systems are optimized for five g telco. An enterprise workloads learn more at super micro dot com powered by M d Here's what else you need to know today on Monday,
Russia lodged its long anticipated full scale offensive to take control of a key area in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine's president or Dimmers Linsky announced the start of the surge in a video address. Saying quote, the russian troops have begun the battle for the dun. He added that a quote. Significant part of the entire russian army is now concentrate on this offensive and a judge in Florida struck down the nation wide federal mask requirement on planes, trains, buses and other public transportation ruling that federal health officials had exceeded their legal authority to keep the mandate in place in the hours after the ruling, the nations largest airlines had dropped their mask requirements for domestic flights
and Amtrak said passengers and employees would no longer need to wear masks. The bind administration said it was reviewing the judges ruling and assessing whether to appeal at today's episode was produced by air property and Diana win with help from Lindsey Garrison. It was edited by M J. Davis Win at least a child contains original music by Marian Lozano and was engineered by Chris would are thin. Music is by Gibran birth and benevolence. Work of wonderingly, that's it for the daily I'm Sabrina it see tomorrow. This episode is supported. By better help I mind therapy life can be overwhelming,
and many are burned out without knowing it burn notice related not only to your career, but also to your role as apparent caretaker or friend, if you're, losing motivation, feeling helpless or detaching from loved ones, talking with someone, can help identify, what's causing burn out better help wants to help you prioritize yourself. Offering customized therapy through video phone and live chat sessions with a licensed therapist get ten percent off your first month of online therapy at better health dot com slashed the daily, that's better h, e l, p dot com slashed. The daily
Transcript generated on 2022-05-06.