Russia - Life In The Shadow Of War

With Putin's invasion of Ukraine about to complete a year, opinions are divided in russia about the war. Russians, however, stand united fighting western sanctions, which they feel are an attempt to isolate and humiliate them. The week reports from Russia

- Mandira Nayar/Moscow & Saint Petersburg

Russia is turning half a world, towards the east. Saint Petersburg, the magnificent city which was Peter the Great’s smitten ode to Europe—designed by European masters, filled with art from Van Gogh to Vermeer and dotted by fountains that rival the Gardens of Versailles—is known as Russia’s window to the west. But that opening has been boarded shut, with the west imposing punitive sanctions on Russia as a retaliation to Vladimir Putin’s military action in Ukraine, which completes a year on February 24.

“It is the cancel culture. You cancel companies on social media. Now they have cancelled a country and its people,” said Nikolay Semakov, who teaches Mandarin at a local university. This is not the first time that Russia is facing western sanctions. But this is, perhaps, the first time that the world has put Russia on a timeout. Ordinary life as it occurred before February 24 has largely disappeared. It is impossible to use bank cards. Universities are forced to abandon their Zoom accounts. There is no Netflix even if you are ready to pay; Skype will not accept money from Russia; Spotify, too, has chosen to treat Russian money as tainted. “We had got used to having these on our phones,’’ said Semakov. “I used my friend’s international credit card to renew my Skype subscription. The moment the VPN facility was removed and Skype realised that I was in Russia, the money was returned to my friend’s account. If this is not cancelling, what is?’’

And it extends beyond the borders of Russia. In Dubai, Louis Vuitton stores had stopped serving Russians. Chanel and Hermès, too, do not take Russian money, despite the fact that Russia is among the world’s top luxury markets.