JRL NEWSWATCH: “In Moscow, the War Is Background Noise, but Ever-Present” – New York Times

“Muscovites go about their daily lives with little major disruption. But the war’s effects are evident — in the stores, at the movies and in the increasingly repressive environment.”

“… Muscovites are experiencing dual realities: The war has faded into background noise … yet … remains ever-present in … daily lives. … Advertisements to join the military are … on roadside billboards and … posters in convenience stores. Moscow’s metro recently stopped making announcements in English …. A statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, … founder of the Soviet political police, was inaugurated … in front of … the foreign intelligence services [headquarters,] … a copy of a statue that stood in front of [KGB] headquarters … until it was torn down in 1991 …. The election for mayor … underscored the sea change in Russian politics. A decade ago … Navalny [ran] against … Sobyanin. Now, [] Navalny is in jail, and there was no real competition for [] Sobyanin …. As [] Putin presides over a war with no end in sight … authorities have worked to limit public expressions of dissent and make things seem as normal as possible. Aleksei A. Venediktov, who headed the … Echo of Moscow radio station before the Kremlin shut it down … said … even if changes on Moscow’s surface were hard to see, and increasingly harder to discuss, people were … transforming inside. ‘People are starting to return to the Soviet practice, when public conversations can lead to trouble at work,’ he said. ‘It’s like toxic poisoning — a very slow process.'”

Click here for: “In Moscow, the War Is Background Noise, but Ever-Present; Muscovites go about their daily lives with little major disruption. But the war’s effects are evident — in the stores, at the movies and in the increasingly repressive environment.” – New York Times/ Valerie Hopkins

[featured image is file photo from another occasion]