Translated material
Has love gone?
Why does Putin choose the FSB and not citizens?
The FSB claims to have prevented a terrorist attack against the leaders of Roskomnadzor. Security forces detained seven people, and one suspect was shot dead during the arrest. The FSB statement says that Ukrainian special services are seeking to disrupt the RKN’s measures to ensure the security of the information space, including blocking Telegram.
On April 23, Vladimir Putin publicly spoke about Internet blocking. He claims that this is a measure necessary for “operational activities to prevent terrorist attacks.” As The Bell notes, Putin essentially officially admitted that communication blackouts were deliberate actions by security forces. According to the publication, behind the blocking and the fight against VPN is the Second Service of the FSB, which was responsible for the poisoning of Navalny and Kara-Murza.
The actions of Roskomnadzor and the special services led to a drop in Putin's rating. As Novaya Gazeta Europe calculated, since the beginning of the year, Russians have recorded 25 appeals to the president. And one of the main topics is the limitations of the Internet. Even the Presidential Administration noticed the dissatisfaction of Russians. Sergei Novikov, one of the associates of the first deputy head of the Presidential Administration Sergei Kiriyenko, said that society is tired of restrictions. According to Novikov, regular bans “will not lead to anything good.”
The founder of the Rassvet party, Ekaterina Duntsova, calls for protesting against lockdowns from home: for example, knocking on a pan on an open window. Duntsova believes that now everything is heading towards the fact that Russia will simply be disconnected from the Internet.
Russians are also surprised by how much the government spends on lockdowns. The host of the Komsomolskaya Pravda radio, Ivan Pankin, was indignant on the air that 100 billion rubles were thrown away at a time when problems in the economy were growing.
The Association of Software Product Developers "Domestic Software" offers to help the Kremlin create a "sovereign Internet" without blocking VPNs and "white lists." As RBC found out, the head of the association, Natalya Kasperskaya, sent a letter with such an initiative to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and head of the presidential administration Anton Vaino.
Why Putin chooses the side of the FSB and does not want to listen to dissatisfied citizens, we discuss with political scientist Dmitry Oreshkin .
Approval of Vladimir Putin has fallen in Russia for the seventh week in a row. This is evidenced by VTsIOM data. Now Putin is trusted by 71% of respondents, which is 1% less than a week ago. FOM records the strongest surge of anxiety in Russian society in two years - this is happening against the backdrop of Internet blocking, a deteriorating economic situation and war fatigue.
Why does Putin choose the FSB and not citizens?
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The Russian FSB reported on the suppression of a terrorist attack that was allegedly being prepared against the leaders of Roskomnadzor in Moscow and several other cities. There is no independent confirmation of this information. Vladimir Putin said that “Internet shutdowns in large cities are related to the work to prevent terrorist attacks,” essentially making it clear that Internet blockages in Russia will continue, despite the dissatisfaction of citizens. Political scientist Dmitry Oreshkin is confident that there will be no relaxations on the part of the security forces and the president, who relies on them, in the near future:
I think that reporting on a prevented terrorist attack is quite a traditional manner for the KGB
-I think that reporting on a prevented terrorist attack is a completely traditional manner for the KGB. The party said “it is necessary”, the KGB answered “there is”, and immediately caught someone. A week ago, Vladimir Putin ordered the economic bloc of the government to establish economic growth in the country. He was outraged that the economy began to decline. And a week later, Rosstat showed its growth by 0.4%. So we are taking big steps back to Soviet practice, when, according to the numbers, everything was fine in the country. What the FSB is now reporting on is a hastily put together “bullshit”. Because usually a terrorist attack is not prepared simultaneously in Moscow and in four other large cities of Russia. Most likely, this, as usual, is a provocative activity of the special services, who need to report on their own usefulness. Well, of course, they nod towards Ukraine.
Let me remind you that they told us the same thing about the terrorist attack in Crocus City – that it was ordered by Ukraine. Only on the basis that the participants in this event were traveling by car towards the Bryansk region. The longer Putin is in power, the further he is from reality. They tell him what he wants to hear. This is an inevitable process. And the worse things are, the greater the control over information flows. For example, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in the spring of 1918 banned about five hundred magazines and newspapers because they were bourgeois. And then there were no other newspapers besides bourgeois ones. Instead, he left a dozen publications that were entirely controlled by the party elite. That is, he sharply narrowed the information field and tried to impose complete control over it. It's the same now.
The whole country understands perfectly well that Putin has failed everywhere, but this is a terrible secret that cannot be talked about
The whole country understands perfectly well that Putin has failed everywhere. But this is a terrible secret that cannot be talked about. By starting the war against Ukraine, Putin was going to save the Russian people. As a result, he sharply worsened the lives of Russians, and not only Russian people. Putin resented NATO and demanded that the alliance return to its 1997 borders. As a result, we see that the organization has expanded to even include Sweden and Finland. Putin talked about the demilitarization of Ukraine, as a result he received a Ukrainian army, which is considered the strongest in Europe. To win back people's love, you need to tell people on the Internet and on TV how wonderful Putin is and how much he cares about people's security. This can be done when you control the newspaper Pravda. And when you have the Internet, you can’t shut everything down.
This means that the Internet should be banned. This is accompanied by irritation of the broad working masses. But that doesn't matter. The main thing is that there is no irritation on the part of the security forces. That is, we see how the power class is strengthening. Putin is forced to rely on him more and more.
These same security forces are beginning to put pressure on the conditional liberals in the country, because there are no real liberals left there anymore. But there remained conditional technocrats like representatives of the economic bloc or the same Sergei Kiriyenko. That is, everything is done in order to strengthen the security of the government, not the people. Everything is fine with the authorities, they can live without the Internet, they have their own “white lists”, access to the Internet with coupons. But Russia, its economy, demography, self-perception, culture will continue to degrade, Dmitry Oreshkin is sure.
Journalist and politician Ekaterina Duntsova appealed to Russians dissatisfied with Internet blocking to join the “home protest.” She invites them to open the windows and make noise for free Internet - blowing the whistle, blowing the whistle, knocking on pots or turning on music.
Political scientist Dmitry Oreshkin speaks about Vladimir Putin’s further strategy given the sharp drop in his rating and the growth of discontent and anxiety among Russians:
He understands well how to work with the security forces, but he doesn’t give a damn about society
-Vladimir Putin uses technology that has been proven for centuries - he relies on several groups of security officials who compete with each other. The FSB looks after the army, the army looks after the Russian Guard, the Russian Guard looks after the FSB, the prosecutor's office and the police are also law enforcement agencies and look after each other. They all watch each other, they all compete with each other, and they all rush with incriminating evidence to the office where Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin sits. As long as it works for him, as long as there is a system of checks and balances, he will always feel safe. The horror of this system is that he cannot leave this office, because he will lose control, he will lose the sense of who needs to be atomized, who needs to be displaced, and who, on the contrary, needs to be raised. This is the essence of his Byzantine power.
Putin will move towards Stalinist methods simply because it is dictated by his considerations for his security
So he understands well how to work with the security forces, but he doesn’t give a damn about society, because he is sure that if he controls the bayonets, then society will not stick its head out from under the benches. Well, they will imprison you, they will scare you, so what? People will be disappointed. Where will they go? At the upcoming “elections” in September, they will be drawn with votes - how many they need and for whom they need them. They will laugh at it inside themselves, but they will accept it. Where are you going? This is how North Korea and many other less advanced states work. Putin will no longer be able to roll back to people's love. In Russia there has never been much love for power. Rather, there was respect mixed with fear. This is considered good form in our country. So, this system has no reverse.
Putin will move towards Stalinist methods simply because it is dictated by his concerns about his security. He may have to create some kind of additional security structure that will monitor all other security agencies. Perhaps he will have to ban something else, so that what cannot be discussed cannot be discussed. He will continue to silence people and keep his power at bayonetes, predicts political scientist Dmitry Oreshkin.