Mood in Russia turns bleak as war in Ukraine drags on and economy suffers

The regime has tried extremely hard to keep things in and around Moscow/the big cities feeling as normal as possible (historically when the big cities turn is when the revolution starts) and they live in a gigantic propaganda bubble. Thats not a new thing, they’ve always benefited from gutting the rest of Russia/other countries in the USSR when that was a thing. You can only deny objective reality for so long though.

It’s one thing when you could carry on your life as usual. And another thing when I personally know a couple of people whose relatives in Russia saw drones hitting neighboring buildings. Plus mobile internet is basically down in big cities - meaning no carshare, no taxis, no YouTube on the way. Prices for groceries are on par with Europe but salaries are 3-5 times lower. The funniest shit is that even Putin recently admitted economic slowdown and said it’s due to 3 extra holidays. LMAO.

'It's good you came in summer, in winter it can get very depressing.' 

It's turned break enough that people are voicing dissatisfaction, *in Russia.* One guy spent two years in a penal colony because his 12-year-old daughter drew an anti-war picture in school and the teacher reported them to the FSB. Another got 5 years for reading an anti-war poem in a Moscow square. For a while OMON was beating people who looked like they might be intending to protest later. Freedom of speech isn't a thing - 'do you love Putin and the war' is a question with a correct answer, and getting it wrong can have serious personal consequences. But the economy and internet access are things you're allowed to be unhappy about, as long as you pretend they mysteriously happened through magic. So people are taking their *opportunity to express dissatisfaction* while they can. In context I consider this a very hopeful sign.

Once you hit the bottom you can always punch through to next barrel

Russian people are used to it so things have to get really bad before they start reacting.

You don't understand, for Russians what any typical westerner would consider bleak is just daily life. For Russians to consider the situation bleak, shit must be f****** fucked.

Life in russia has been bleak for hundreds of years.

Pretty sure bleak is the default state of Russia. I grew up in the GDR. So i know a bit about what a Russian style society feels like. They never evolved apparently. Because the old mold like Putin and those of his type never left. Oh well.

People kept complaining about the Russian economy not fully collapsing in spite of claims of it worsening, as if that meant it was “fake”. When in fact it was bad before and has been steadily worsening over the years. And still is. What I read elsewhere basically said there’s no hope of a soft landing, they’re stuck with years of recession in the best case, but still doubts their economy will fully implode.

Like the article points out, it's the overall mood that is shifting. Russia is a very large country, a real stretched out society, and just because the mood in larger, progressive cities might already seem bleak for some, that doesn't meant that it reached smaller cities, towns and villages. Those places were/are in the tight grip of state propaganda. They literally cut together puplic appearances of western leaders to make them fit their propaganda narrative. That's why Putin went to meet Trump in Anchorage in the first place. It was a prime oportunity for the russian regime to get nice footage, that they then recut to tell a completely different story to the russian population. If you think Trump looks like sucking up to Putin in western media, try to find clips of the russian propaganda. They are essentially close allies to the uninformed russian citizien. That the overall mood is now shifting is a good sign that things (for the west) are moving in the right direction, but i also wouldn't read too much into it. Nothing much will come of it for now.

it used to be bleak. it still is bleak, but it used to be too.

Its Russia - this is probably the best its ever been for them.  Things need to get apocalyptic for them to have it even register

Yeah, their entire history can be summed up with the phrase "and then things got worse."

I think it’s the 100yr anniversary for this. Congrats on not laughing guys 👏

They can but the other thing history teaches us is that when things break, they break *fast*.

Russians can take a lot of shit, people from Moskow not so much.

This episode was really insightful https://www.npr.org/2026/03/24/nx-s1-5758059/why-hasnt-the-russian-economy-collapsed

But if that "anything" happens, is going to be really bad.

Considering Russia is the only global superpower that has collapsed twice in the last 100 years im not sure why thats the lesson learned. Russian leadership always has this idea that they are too big to fall. And then they just fall anyway. It happened to the Tsar and to the Communists.

Yeah. Russia is literally the place I think of when I hear the word "bleak."

I don't like to generalise but I've never been to a country where everything felt so bleak and hostile. I'm an Englishman who was in Buenos Ares on the anniversary of the Falklands and I felt significantly less hostility even then.

only when we drink 

I'm waiting for bleakerer

This is the correct quote: "They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason." — Ernest Hemingway, "Notes on the Next War" (1935)

This is an absolutely great line - but do you have a source for this? It seems to be referenced on a few Facebook pages, but I can't find it listed anywhere else. Not trying to be critical, but I'd love to quote this myself, and have been caught out before by things on facebook. Going by some of his other quotes, I really should try reading some Hemingway though.

This (the above) is a corruption by someone modern of what he actually said: "​They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason."

I remember talking to a Russian research doctor I knew, usually a very sharp and professional guy. He was trying to convince me of a wild conspiracy theory about the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor, and I thought that was out of character. I mentioned that space agencies around the world had monitored its approach, and that Roscosmos had even publicly released findings from the impact site. He looked surprised for a sec and said, 'Uhhhh, yeah man... *that's exactly how you know it wasn't a meteor'.* It was easier for him to believe in a *top secret nuclear test on his own home soil* than accept that any Russian government agency might have told the truth about anything ever. Very eye opening moment.

It's telling that they started limiting internet access--is that more than usual?--like turning off the internet entirely or blocking more sites or what? You can smell the desperation to control the message... I've been following the guys like Preston Stewart who follow the Russian & Ukrainian milbloggers and look at the maps trying to track the zero-line, to get an better idea of what's going on over there, and yeah... seems like it's been a while since Russia's military was doing anything more than "checking the box" of "advancing" Like literally one or two guys would get through and "take ground" but they'll be dead in a matter of time from drones, and unless Ukraine forces actually go and take it back, it's like Russia still considers it theirs. Ukraine obviously doesn't do that regularly because it's pointless, but Russia has no such qualms about sending men to die for pointless endeavors. Doesn't stop Russia from saying they "took this town" or whatever, even if it means it's just one guy holed-up in a bombed-out house, praying a drone doesn't detect him once he runs out of food or water and needs to find more. Russians are just being sent to slaughter. Their command shoots them if they refuse, and their command largely has no interest (or capability?) for serious advances, at least not lately. It's terrifying, really. You see clips of the last moments from a drone's point of view, as it flies towards a guy who realizes he's fucked and tries to dive away or shoot it... I saw today one hit group of like 10 guys riding in a truckbed... And they were just sitting there, looking at the drone, like yep, we're fucked... So it's not like they can cluster together either, so that's why they just send a couple guys at a time now, and I'm sure the generals are feeding Putin a bunch of shit about how well their "assaults" are going, and how much land they're taking, so they can keep breathing. It turns out, dead men do tell tales.

They had an actual democracy for a minute, they couldn't get rid of it fast enough.

Pretty sure they are making money hand over fist right now thanks to the Iran conflict.

12 years ago too

The war supporting Russians are literally Eastern European MAGAs. Dumb as f*** sociopaths that couldn't care less about anything until it negatively affects themselves.

>Four years ago, they cheered Putin. Sorry to be rude, but that is bullshit. There was an [outpouring of anti-war protests in Russia when the war began](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-war_protests_in_Russia_(2022%E2%80%93present)) and it continued for months despite thousands of protestors being arrested / imprisoned.

George bush Jr 90% approval rating on the brink of Iraq war Netanyahu, Khomeini, Assad, Kim Jong Un, Erdogan, need I go on? Time for y'all to learn that approval in democracies vs autocracies means something very different It's like asking someone employed at a company, "do you like your boss?" Except the boss has an army, a navy and secret police There are brave people everywhere, and there are also a lot of would-be brave people given the right environment. Everyone should look for the brave ones and encourage the would-be ones and then everyone else, even the cowards join once the dictator looks weak Look at what you say, and what you did, and what it got you

Probably kinda annoyed that he sold out his entire future to reveal the extent of government surveillance only for his countrymen to be like 'meh'.

Yeh, they're not really being forced here lol

Populations (mostly) don’t care until it broadly affects them directly. But yes Russia should go and f*** itself as long as it’s back inside its own borders I don’t think anyone would care.

The US is like that too. When people are asked why they disapprove of Trump,inflation is the top answer voters give. Not one of 1,000 other reasons people should know about but don’t affect them personally

This was my initial reaction too (USA). I think we need to take a look in the mirror. We could actually have our dictator removed and I don’t think Russia has that luxury. If you’re European you’re obviously off the hook and I don’t mean to insult you in any case. I just picked your comment to reply to because this is what I was thinking and then had a moment of self awareness.

The Russian people are prisoners to the system. You cannot scorn somebody for the circumstances of their birth.

no paywall here, I'll paste >President Vladimir Putin is facing rising discontent across Russian society as the war against Ukraine drags on, the economy flounders and public dissatisfaction mounts over government restrictions on internet access. > Russia’s biggest state-owned pollster, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center, on Friday recorded that Putin’s approval rating fell to 65.6 percent, its lowest level since before the beginning of the war and a drop of 12.2 percentage points since the start of the year. > Gauging genuine public opinion is difficult under an authoritarian regime that exiles, imprisons or even kills political opponents and where criticism of the war is illegal, but compared with Putin’s historical ratings — as high as 88 percent — the falling poll numbers signal growing weariness with the war now in its fifth year, and with negotiations to end it largely stalled as the Trump administration focuses on Iran. > Economic sanctions are biting ever deeper into Russia’s economy, hitting pocketbooks, and the government’s push to limit access to the internet, citing security concerns, is rankling a society that long enjoyed a high level of digitalization. Ask The Post AI Dive deeper > “The overall mood is that’s enough already; you’ve been fighting for long enough,” said one Russian official, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “It seems to everyone that it’s been going on for longer than World War II, the Great Patriotic War — and at the same time we can’t even take one region,” the official said, referring to Russia’s failed effort since the full-scale invasion in 2022 to take full control of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. > In recent weeks, Putin’s government has faced unusually open and strident criticism from members of Russia’s financial elite over its handling of the economy, which contracted by 1.8 percent in the first two months of the year as tougher sanctions and high interest rates intended to combat inflation continue to choke investment and led nonpayments of commercial bills to reach a record high of $109 billion in January, according to Rosstat, Russia’s Federal Statistics Service. The number of companies owing taxes to the government, meanwhile, has climbed to 439,900, according to Aktion Accounting, a Russian firm. >One by one, businessmen and economists attending an economic forum in Moscow earlier this month upbraided the government over the shrinking economy. >“The people at the top have completely lost touch with the reality on the ground, in the economy,” said Vladimir Bogalev, the head of a Russian tractor manufacturer, according to online video footage from the forum. Those in a position of power are actively “discrediting” themselves, Bogalev said. >Robert Nigmatulin, an economist at the Russian Academy of Sciences, told the forum that Russia was lagging China and that inflation had far outstripped economic growth. “We’ve lost everything and still we are the poorest. Even in the poorest regions of China incomes are higher than in our poorest regions,” Nigmatulin said. “GDP growth since 2015 — that’s 11 years — is about 1.5 percent per year. Do you know how much consumer prices have increased by? Seventy-seven percent.” > He added: “Can we invest in a country with leadership like this? You can’t run an economy this way.” > Meanwhile, a video posted by a Monaco-based social media influencer Victoria Bonya railing against the online restrictions — and denouncing the government’s handling of other problems facing ordinary Russians — went viral, forcing the Kremlin to respond by insisting that it was working on all the issues she raised. > Gennady Zyuganov, the longtime leader of Russia’s Communist Party, took things further during a speech in parliament this past week, warning that “economic collapse is inevitable” if issues go unaddressed. “By autumn we will face what happened in 1917,” he said, referencing the Bolshevik Revolution. > Sanctions and Putin’s heavy military spending drove inflation sky-high, forcing the central bank to raise interest rates above 20 percent to cool down the economy. Though the central bank has since pulled rates back — they now stand at 14.5 percent — economists increasingly have warned of “overcooling” and recession. > Russia’s economic development minister, Maxim Reshetnikov, said this past week that Russia’s reserves “are largely exhausted,” while Putin this month publicly acknowledged that the economy was in trouble and called on the central bank and his government to explain the slowdown in growth. > The Russian economy, heavily dependent on oil revenue, has won some respite from a surge in oil prices caused by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, but economists said only a much longer, sustained period of high prices would let Russia balance its budget. > “Right now, the Russian economy is in a strange twilight zone between the positive effects that can be expected from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the high commodity prices, and at the same time Russia’s own economic dynamic, which was worsening significantly in the last months,” said Janis Kluge, an economist with Germany’s Institute for International and Security Affairs. > In addition, increasing attacks by Ukrainian drones on Russian ports and refineries forced Russia to slash oil production in April by 300,000 to 400,000 barrels per day, Reuters reported, potentially undermining some of the windfall Moscow anticipated from higher prices and President Donald Trump’s temporary waiver of sanctions on Russian oil. > “Problems are growing and we have spoken for a long time about how this time would come,” said a Russian academic with close ties to senior Russian diplomats. > As citizens are forced to cut back on basic expenses and internet restrictions disrupt daily life, divisions are emerging across all sectors of society, analysts said. > For some in Russia, Trump’s seemingly arbitrary decision to go to war against Iran offered justification for Putin’s own war of choice against Ukraine and could prompt the Kremlin to dig in its heels in pursuit of its military objectives, especially seizing Donetsk. > “Everyone believes that the war in the Persian Gulf gives Russia and Putin the chance to fight for longer against Ukraine and to take more territory,” one Moscow businessman said, also speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “No one understands how long the war is going to last and on the other hand people increasingly fear that the state is going to take more and more away from them.” > Against that backdrop, despair is growing, especially over the internet restrictions, which are reviving potent memories of Soviet repression. “People like us are very worried, because we were born in a country you couldn’t leave,” said Tatyana, 53, a manager in a logistics company, who spoke on the condition that she be identified only by her first name. “We already lived behind the Iron Curtain once, and then we were sure it would never happen again. But in reality, it has. Now we have a digital Iron Curtain.” > Others spoke of the desolate economic landscape. “From a business perspective, I can see things are a complete mess — sales have dropped, people have less and less money, there are far fewer people in shopping malls, prices have doubled, and for fruit and vegetables they’ve tripled,” said Irina, 46, a sales manager who spoke on the condition that she be identified only by her first name. “Utility bills have gone up, taxes have been raised too.” > Igor, 19, a student, described growing despondence. “Overall, both I and the people I know feel a complete sense of hopelessness that nothing can be done about,” said Igor, who also spoke on the condition he be identified only by his first name. “Everyone wants to leave, but most don’t have that option. No one wants to tie their future to this country. Living here is difficult, expensive, and bleak.”

> its infrastructure development is shit. It's been by design. You can take a look at how developed are larger cities - St.Petersburg, Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Vladivostok, and then look at remote regions. It's all on Google Maps. After collapse of Soviet Union they had a chance to develop their nation. And they somewhat used it up until Putin became president.

See Dostoyevsky

Afterwards "we invaded the baltics" is a good one too. Fun fact, Lithuanian language is considered one of the oldest languages in the world. Another not so fun fact, Russia tried to erase it alltogether by banning the language from 1864 untill 1904, burning all the books and so on. We literally had to smuggle books from abroad as if it was opium or something. We got a word for those legends too "knygnešys" or book smuggler. How is trying to completely eliminate one of the oldest languages not considered a crime against humanity is beyond me.