War, Prigogine and Taylor Swift

People, events and phenomena that determined 2023. Version "Cold"

The outgoing year has become a record for the number of military conflicts, and the demand for violence was reflected even in the Russian-speaking pop culture, where the series “The Word of the kid” turned out to be the main phenomenon. In Russia, the year will be remembered by the next strengthening of repressions against the disagreements, the rebellion of Prigozhin, the struggle for the "traditional values" and the growth of fatigue from the war with Ukraine. "Cold" suggests recalling the main events of the year.

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Dead end in the Ukrainian war

The counterattack of Ukraine that began in the summer did not lead to significant results. Ukraine and its allies had high hopes for him: Zelensky in the last New Year's appeal called the 2023rd “Year of the Victory of Ukraine”, and the head of intelligence Kirill Budanov considered it possible to return the Crimea by summer. However, the breakthrough did not happen, and Ukraine managed to achieve only local successes.

The Commander -in -Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny admits that for serious changes, Ukrainians need a “technological breakthrough”. In his opinion, the situation at the front has come to a standstill and there is a risk that the war will drag on for years and exhaust Ukraine. Zelensky also notes the lack of the desired results of a counterattack, but does not consider the situation to be Patova.

The unsatisfactory results of counterattackscaused a serious conflict between the Saluzhnaya and Zelensky, which foreign media wrote a lot about. The president’s office is also annoyed by the ratings of the Commander -in -Chief, which among Ukrainians becomes more popular than the head of state. Against this background, some media even wrote that the president’s office was considering the possibility of resigning a slave. Officially, no one confirmed the conflict, and Zelensky only once restrainedly answered the question of relations with the commander in chief: “I have workers with the relationship with the curtain. He must be responsible for the results on the battlefield as a commander inaccurate. ”

The ineffectiveness of the counterattack is associated with a lack of Western support - at least, the Ukrainian authorities are talking about this. Formally, the allies fulfilled the majority of the conditions set by Ukraine: they trained nine brigades, put a thousand units of armored vehicles and even agreed with South Korea on the supply of ammunition, but this was not enough for a breakthrough. Moreover, in the near future, problems with the provision of Armed Forces can only increase: the US Senate did not have time to consider the allocation of assistance to Ukraine, and discussion on it is postponed for the next year, and the European Union could not coordinate the financial assistance package for Ukraine - Hungary opposed it again. True, the EU seems to have found a way to get around the veto with another mechanism.

EU expansion and "right turn"

When reducing financial support from Ukraine, Europe in 2023 began to more actively support the country in politically. In December, the European Union announced the start of negotiations with Ukraine about its entry into the bloc. Negotiations will also begin with Moldova, but for this, both countries have to "achieve compliance with membership criteria."

The European Union intends to expand: in December, Georgia was also given the status of a candidate, which was refused in it in 2022. At the same time, both Moldova and Georgia, and Ukraine are countries with unresolved territorial disputes, and everything is with Russia, therefore, such steps are more likely to be symbolic, and many years can pass before the real entry of countries. In addition, Hungary is already opposed to expansion.

Other countries can join it in which right -wing populists came to power: in 2023, the Robert Fitzo party won in Slovakia, who promised to reduce assistance to Ukraine, and the elections in the Netherlands were won by the right party of Hertha Wilders, the right ones are gaining popularity in Germany. However, these trends can decline over time: Poland is an example, where the right government lost in the elections to the pro -European forces.

Karabakh is Azerbaijan

After freezing the conflict in 2020, Russian peacekeepers remained in the region: they had to prevent a new exacerbation and ensure the functioning of the Lachinsky corridor - the only route connecting an unrecognized republic with Armenia. However, in December 2022, Azerbaijan blocked the Lachin corridor, which caused a humanitarian crisis in Nagorno -Karabakh.

In September, the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan recognized Nagorny Karabakh part of Azerbaijan. In response, Baku promised to resolve the conflict with the republic peacefully. Nevertheless, on September 19, Azerbaijan attacked the unrecognized NKR, calling it a "counter -terrorist operation." A day later, the artillery boosts Armenians Karabakh agreed to lay down their weapons, and the republic ceased to exist.

By the beginning of October, almost the entire Armenian population left Karabakh, fearing ethnic purges. According to the UN, no more than a thousand Armenians remained in Karabakh (the population of the republic was 120 thousand people before the conflict). Despite the so far from the public skirmish of Armenia and Azerbaijan, the 30-year territorial dispute of the two former Soviet republics ended.

Hamas attack on Israel and an operation in the gas sector

A record for the number of conflicts for the year continued with the attack of the Hamas terrorist organization on Israel. On October 7, the group militants invaded Israel and attacked the festival in the desert, as well as settlements closest to the border. More than 1200 people died, more than 200 - were taken hostage.

In response to the attack, Israel began shelling the gas sector and a ground operation in the region. European countries and the United States expressed solidarity with Israel and recognized its right to self -defense. But in the course of military operations, unity cracked due to a high number of victims among the civilians: in December, only the Czech Republic and Austria voted against the UN General Assembly to the ceasefire in the gas sector.

According to Gaza, Hamas controlled by the Hamas, more than 11 thousand people died from Israel, of which 4630 were children. Israel and the United States expressed skepticism regarding these numbers, however, international organizations, such as the UN and Human Rights Watch, do not see reasons not to trust this data. By the end of 2023, the intensity of battles decreased, but the parties continue to strike at each other's objects.

Prigozhin rebellion

One of the most striking events of the outgoing year was an attempt by an armed coup in Russia. The head of the Wagner PMC Evgeny Prigozhin began the rebellion after several weeks of public skirmishes from the Ministry of Defense, which he publicly accused of failure and lack of weapons. They reached their peak against the backdrop of a video message, where Prigozhin asks the army leadership: “Gerasimov, Shoigu, where, bitch, ammunition?”

A formal reason for the “march of justice” was the strike of the Ministry of Defense on the formations of the Wagner PMC - however, experts believe that he could be staged. On June 23, Prigozhin began traffic to Moscow. PMC "Wagner" reached Rostov-on-Don and moved on to the capital. The rebellion ended as unexpectedly as it began: Alexander Lukashenko said that he agreed with Prigozhin.

According to the terms of these agreements, the rebellion stopped, and Prigozhin - at that time the defendant of the criminal case of a military rebellion - was supposed to just “leave” to Belarus. The participants of the Wagner PMC were invited either to conclude contracts from the Ministry of Defense, or also “leave” to Belarus. Prigozhin himself and his supporters, who participated in the rebellion, were given guarantees of security, who, however, did not save the top of the Wagner PMC from death - in August the plane with Prigozhin crashed in the Tver region. The media is called the organizer of the crash of the Secretary of the Council of Security of Russia Nikolai Patrushev.

The Russians were remembered by the rebellion, stuck in the gate of the circus with a tank , memes about Joseph Prigozhin and the Chechen division of Akhmat, which was suspiciously for a long time in Rostov-on-Don, despite the order of Ramzan Kadyrov to suppress the rebellion. Muscovites were winning from the rebellion - they received an extra weekend from Sergei Sobyanin.

The Russians are tired of fighting

A year later, protest activity responded mobilization that began in September 2022. The wives and mothers of the mobilized began to wonder when their men were returned home. They did not receive an official answer, but the military commissars after a meeting with Putin reported that the decision was already made: "Everyone is fighting to the end of their own."

The vague terms did not arrange mobilized wives. They began to protest: to create petitions and write appeals to the authorities demanding to return mobilized home. The center of protest was the “Way Home” movement, which grew out of the usual telegram channel. Most of all, the traffic was remembered by the slogans “we are fucked and you will fuck you” and “VERTIT IN THE HUSTRANT, I BECHER#Bathered”. The authorities tried to suppress an unexpected protest: Russian propagandists are now opposed to the wives of the mobilized, chats attack bots, and the FSB threatens husbands and fathers.

Meanwhile, the military themselves are not happy to fight. Analysts of the Forest project record a significant increase in the number of those who want to desert: the number of such requests increased by 89%, from 305 in June-August to 577 for September-November. Lawyers believe that the military is tired of waiting for the rotation of the mobilized.

Strengthening repression

In order to prevent protests, the authorities began to tighten the nuts more strongly, using repressive laws adopted in 2022. They plant, for example, for comments: Alexei Moskalev was sentenced to two years in a colony for commentary in Odnoklassniki and an anti -war drawing of his daughter. The artist Sasha Skochilenko was sentenced to seven years for anti -war price tags - and even the applicant in the case did not expect such a period.

Political prisoners find themselves in a particularly vulnerable position, since the state is not interested in observing their rights in places of deprivation of liberty. The Russian oppositionist Alexei Navalny, for example, has already been sent more than 20 times to a schizo. He is not given letters from lawyers, relatives and wife. And in December, Navalny disappeared at all: for 20 days, lawyers could not find their client, since they refused to provide information about his whereabouts. Only on December 25, Navalny was found in one of the colonies of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

The number of political prisoners in Russia has grown 15 times over the past 10 years. The number of cases of state reception and espionage has increased significantly. Since the beginning of the year, the courts received 63 cases under an article on state treason and another seven cases - under an article on cooperation on a confidential basis with a foreign state. This is a historical maximum, human rights activists note . Moreover, the courts make decisions on such cases very quickly - about a month, while it comes to an article according to which the accused can be deprived of freedom for 20 years. All sentences under the article on the Stateismman are currently sentenced.

"Traditional values"

The new main internal enemy for the Russian authorities is opponents of “traditional values”, and the main representative of this group of power is considered LGBTK+people. This year, deputies spent several months discussing the “Paul Change Prohibition”. In the original version, it was assumed that the law would complicate the change of documents for transgender people, but in the end, the deputies simply banned the transgender transition, despite the objections of doctors and lawyers.

After the prohibition of transgender transitions, the authorities moved to the ban on any orientation other than heterosexual. If in November 2022 the “propaganda of LGBT” among all ages was banned in Russia, then in November this year LGBT was generally recognized as an “extremist organization”. At the same time, the "International Public Movement of LGBT" does not exist in principle, but this Supreme Court did not stop.

How exactly will the decision to recognize LGBT work as an extremist organization work is still unclear. However, there is no such understanding with previous laws. Everyone is fined for the “propaganda of LGBT”: from people with suspicious tattoos to domestic online cinemas, for whom the amount of fines this year exceeded 29 million rubles.

Even loyal authorities suffer from repressive laws. At the end of the year, the blogger Anastasia Ivleeva arranged a “naked” party, which gathered the entire Moscow bomond. Ksenia Sobchak, Philip Kirkorov and Lolita Milyavskaya appeared in outright or imitating the naked body of outfits. The party caused the outrage of the patriotic community, which asked to check the domestic celebrities for LGBT propaganda.

At first it seemed that the rapper Vacio was most affected. He seriously approached the dress code and came to the party in just one toe-on a member. The rapper was fined 200 thousand for the “propaganda of LGBT” andsent for 15 days to a special cost, despite the assurances of Vacio that he was heterosexual. Ivleeva, Sobchak, Kirkorov, Bilan and other party participants had to record a video with an apology. But this did not help - they are now cut out of the air, break out advertising contracts with them and threaten multimillion -dollar lawsuits.

"Word of the kid"

The main film production of 2023 was the series about street groups of the late 1980s. Filted by Zhora Kryzhovnikov “The Word of the Boanding. Blood on the asphalt ”caused many disputes about observing historical accuracy, romanticization of the“ Kazan phenomenon ”and a chanting of violence. Judging by the requests at Yandex, in December, Russians were interested in the series more than the war in Ukraine for a year.

The success of the series is associated with interest in closed criminal culture. On the one hand, gangs, gangs and mafia are a threat to a calm existence, on the other, this seems to be many world justice and brotherhood. However, not everyone agrees with these theses: for example, the head of Tatarstan asked to ban the series due to propaganda of street groups. MP Nina Ostanina addressed Roskomnadzor with the same demand. However, no official prohibitions, despite the active discussion, were followed.

The series was especially popular among Russian schoolchildren, many of whom began to use the hierarchy of boys from the series in their classes, and the insult of “Chushpan” began to sound at almost every change. The promotion of the series was helped by social networks: one of the main musical topics of the series, the song “Puffed” (glass) of the Aigel group, entered the top services of Shazam and Tiktok.

The series unexpectedly became popular outside of Russia, including among Ukrainian spectators, which is why questions arose about the ethics of its viewing during the Russian invasion. The publication “RBC-Ukraine” against this background even collected a separate selection of series that can be replaced by “this Russian”.

Pink hope

Describing the outgoing year, Time magazine admitted that there was “too much darkness” in it, so the magazine approached the choice of a man of the year non -standard. As a rule, politicians or businessmen occupy the cover of the magazine. Last year it was Vladimir Zelensky, a year earlier-entrepreneur Ilon Musk, and in 2020-US Vice President Kamal Harris. In the past year, the American singer Taylor Swift was the man of the year.

“There is light and darkness in every year; In 2023, there was a significant share of darkness. In a divided world where there are too many institutions failure, Taylor Swift found a way to overcome the boundaries and become a source of light, ”the editorial office explained her choice.

The American singer really became a symbol of the association. In 2023, she rolled out a world tour of 146 concerts in 20 countries. Her to visit her were the first sizes and ordinary citizens around the world. Not without financial records - Eras Tour became one of the most profitable in the musical industry, and each concert made a significant contribution to the regional economies.

Taylor Swift became a man of the year “for creating his own world, who has become a common place for a huge number of people, for turning her story into a world legend, for bringing joy to society, desperately in it in need of it.”