XPost: alt.obituaries, soc.history   
   From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   On Wed, 6 Jul 2022 15:42:38 -0700 (PDT), "Dave P."   
    wrote:   
      
   In Russia’s Biggest Cities, Ukraine War Fades to Background Noise   
   By Evan Gershkovich, July 1, 2022, WSJ   
      
   MOSCOW—Dima Karmanovsky had just finished his second DJ set of the   
   night on a recent weekend, and was catching his breath before dashing   
   off to another club for his next job.   
      
   “I haven’t had this much work since before the pandemic,” the   
   35-year-old disc jockey said at Blanc, a popular bar in Russia’s   
   capital.   
      
   As the invasion of Ukraine enters its fifth month, there are   
   relatively few outward signs in Moscow and St. Petersburg of a war   
   that has killed thousands and displaced millions.   
      
   Bars are filled to the brim in Russia’s biggest cities. Film and jazz   
   festivals are sold out. And while the police patrolling Moscow’s   
   streets are now armed with assault rifles, they are busier handing out   
   fines for public drinking than putting down dissent.   
      
   The Russian capital has taken on a carnival feel reminiscent of the   
   summer it welcomed hundreds of thousands of tourists for the 2018 FIFA   
   World Cup. The difference now, other than the soccer games: There are   
   few foreigners in sight.   
      
   “Some people went to fight, but what should the rest do—sit around and   
   cry?” said yoga instructor Natalya Rakhmatullina after finishing an   
   outdoor class in the city center. “This is normal adaptation. We live   
   in a different world now and we have to keep living.”   
      
   A few signs of the war are visible around Moscow. On some buildings,   
   vehicles and clothing are the letters Z and V—symbols of Russia’s   
   invasion. A highway into town is lined with billboards showing Russian   
   soldiers and the text “Glory to Russian heroes,” without referencing   
   Ukraine.   
      
   There are some signs of the impact of Western sanctions, which will   
   take time to percolate through the economy. In at least one Moscow   
   shopping mall, bins for collecting clothes for soldiers stood amid the   
   empty storefronts that previously displayed foreign brands that exited   
   the country following the invasion.   
      
   Visitors would still be hard pressed to know the country is at war.   
   Mr. Karmanovsky was in Sri Lanka on a long vacation when Russian   
   troops stormed into Ukraine on Feb. 24. Surfing during the day, he   
   tried to keep the horror of the war at bay for at least a few hours at   
   a time. When he returned to Moscow in April, he said he was stunned to   
   find the city had barely changed.   
      
   “It really shocked me because people are trying to create this bubble   
   of serenity around themselves, but I’m not sure this is the right   
   way,” Karmanovsky said.   
      
   Some who support the war are frustrated at the apathy of other   
   Muscovites. A 29-year-old engineer wore a T-shirt emblazoned with a   
   “Z” while out for a weekend walk with his family along the Moskva   
   River recently. He said he was disappointed that few people were   
   openly supporting the military.   
      
   “People live their own lives and no one cares about their neighbor,”   
   he said.   
      
   Some political analysts have suggested that residents of Moscow and   
   St. Petersburg, which drew the largest of the early antiwar protests,   
   are far removed from the war because the army tends to attract   
   recruits from poorer regions who see it as a way to improve their   
   prospects. According to the independent Russian website Mediazona,   
   which has tallied nearly 3,800 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine from   
   publicly available data, just eight were from Moscow and 26 from St.   
   Petersburg.   
      
   The Kremlin has avoided a general mobilization, referring to the   
   offensive as a “special military operation.” As a result, the conflict   
   has become background noise, like during the Soviet Union’s fight in   
   Afghanistan, which lasted for years before dissatisfaction began   
   seeping through, said Andrei Kolesnikov, a Moscow-based senior fellow   
   with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.   
      
   “It’s in essence a new contract with the authorities,” he said. “We   
   support the operation but at the same time you don’t force us into   
   real participation.”   
      
   Much of the indifference can be attributed to the way Putin’s   
   authoritarian regime has sought to develop a social contract where   
   people focus on bettering their own lives while leaving politics to   
   the state, said Gulnaz Sharafutdinova, a Russian politics expert at   
   King’s College London.   
      
   While opinion polls suggest public support for the military campaign,   
   it is largely passive, say some experts.   
      
   “It’s support without participation. And this is beneficial for Putin   
   and the Kremlin because people are not fixating on the fact that the   
   war is going for a long time, that there are many casualties, that   
   young boys are dying,” Mr. Kolesnikov said.   
      
   For many, the shock of the largest ground war in Europe since World   
   War II has worn off. According to the independent Levada Center   
   pollster, the level of attention Russians pay to the conflict is   
   declining by the month. While in March, 64% of respondents said they   
   were paying at least some attention, that number was down to 56% in   
   May.   
      
   Those who pay close attention skew older—the age group that   
   predominantly watches state TV for their news—while young Russians are   
   ignoring the events in Ukraine. Only 34% of 18-24-year-olds said they   
   were following the situation.   
      
   “About two weeks into the war, it became clear to me that my family   
   and I weren’t under threat, so I stopped following the news,” said a   
   30-year-old psychologist out at Blanc for the evening, who said the   
   history of the conflict was too complicated to make a judgment on the   
   invasion. “Soon I caught myself being more upset by IKEA leaving   
   Russia than the war,” she added.   
      
   Alexei Ivashkin, a builder, described himself as apolitical and said   
   he mostly doesn’t follow the news, but supports Putin for “giving the   
   U.S. the middle finger.”   
      
   “The fighting is for soldiers. I protect my little world and nothing   
   else concerns me,” he said. “There are other wars going on right now   
   but no one’s talking about them.”   
      
   For the minority that does want to speak out against the war, there is   
   a feeling of hopelessness, after the authorities introduced   
   legislation that has seen hundreds fined and dozens arrested and   
   facing up to 15 years in prison for criticizing the armed forces.   
      
   “People don’t understand how to stop the war while in Russia,” said   
   Ilya Yashin, who has had three misdemeanor charges for criticizing the   
      
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