{"id":11534,"date":"2022-03-21T14:00:13","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T18:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/thediplomaticenvoy\/?p=11534"},"modified":"2022-03-21T11:57:28","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T15:57:28","slug":"focus-on-ukraine-inside-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/thediplomaticenvoy\/2022\/03\/21\/focus-on-ukraine-inside-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"FOCUS on Ukraine: Inside Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Christopher Ben\u00edtez Cuartas<br \/>\n<\/b><b><i>Staff Writer<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Russian President Vladimir Putin is invading Ukraine. As illogical as the move seems from the perspective of internal politics, the Kremlin\u2019s foreign policy is an attempt at bringing back the olden days of Soviet nationalist sentiment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The invasion of Ukraine follows a trend by Putin of declaring wars to boost popularity. During the Chechen Wars in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Putin gained popularity due to a combination of a wartime leader popularity boost and the fact that the Chechen independence movement had a history of terrorism in Russia. In 2008, the Russo-Georgian War managed to further raise Putin\u2019s approval rate to 88 percent despite a bleak background in finances and military.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The world in 2022 is very different, however. Just a year before, Russians protested the jailing of opposition leader Alexey Navalny, the sanctions previously put on Russia have not gone anywhere, and two decades of rule by the same man has started getting under the skin of a new generation of Russians eager for change.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Analysts in the West consider the man in the Kremlin as eager to reconstruct the glory of the Soviet Union, says <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/15\/us\/politics\/us-russia-putin-intelligence.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The New York Times<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. However, many Russians, including young people, have protested what is being called imperialist moves by the Kremlin. Today, they instead watch on television as their president\u2014the only leader their country has ever known in their lifetime\u2014declare the \u201cdenazification\u201d of neighboring Ukraine as they turn on social media and see the devastating images war brings about until they can no longer due to censorship.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Massive protests mobilized in the wake of the invasion. The first of these happened at Pushkin Square in Moscow on February 24, leading to 1,702 arrests, reports <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/feb\/24\/we-dont-want-this-russians-react-to-the-ukraine-invasion\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Guardian<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. As the war in Ukraine raged on, the protesters received much praise from foreigners on social media, as well as foreign dignitaries. Zelensky, who had called them into the streets in the first place, publicly thanked<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">them, stating that \u201cwe see you. It means that you heard us,\u201d says <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/protesters-in-russia-risk-arrest-to-speak-out-against-putins-war\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">CBS News.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The flip side to all of this is the fall of the Russian economy\u2019s access to the outside world. The ruble\u2019s devaluation caused l<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2022\/02\/28\/long-lines-at-russias-atms-as-bank-run-begins-ruble-hit-by-sanctions.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">ong lines<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> outside banks to form, reminding some in the older generation of the drama in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union, according to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2022\/02\/28\/long-lines-at-russias-atms-as-bank-run-begins-ruble-hit-by-sanctions.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">CNBC<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2022\/3\/8\/we-are-refugees-russians-flee-rising-authoritarianism\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Al Jazeera<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> reports that the situation has become so unbearable for some Russians that they are leaving the country altogether, risking the prejudice of the people in their destinations\u2014the Baltic states, Georgia, and Turkey.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Russian authorities have dished out censorship in the traditional manner, with one prominent first victim being the opposition-lined <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Echo of Moscow<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> radio station. The station went<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">off the air on March 3, according to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2022\/03\/03\/world\/russia-ukraine\/echo-of-moscow-a-liberal-russian-radio-station-is-shut-down\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The New York Times<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Meanwhile, Russian public media has been the opposite, though much noticeable in its propagandistic aims. The subtext became text in this scenario as Channel One editor Marina Ovsyannikova broke onto the screen and held a sign while unexpectedly proclaiming \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/mar\/14\/russian-tv-employee-interrupts-news-broadcast-marina-ovsyannikova\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They\u2019re lying to you<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,\u201d says an additional report from the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/mar\/14\/russian-tv-employee-interrupts-news-broadcast-marina-ovsyannikova\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Guardian<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Made-for-export state media RT has been blocked on YouTube as of March 11. The impact the conflict has had on social media mostly revolves around Meta (formerly Facebook) and its presence in Russia as well as its users worldwide who give opinions on the topic. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/russia-bans-instagram-twitter-after-death-threats-allo-1848637866\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gizmodo<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> reports that Instagram was officially banned after Meta allowed for the glorification of violence in the context of the conflict, and particularly the slogan \u201cdeath to the Russian invaders\u201d used by Ukrainian nationalists. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin is invading Ukraine. As illogical as the move seems from the perspective of internal politics, the Kremlin\u2019s foreign policy is an attempt at bringing back the olden days of Soviet nationalist sentiment.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5145,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2332,1365,5,2333,2313,1334],"tags":[400,401,476,910,1446],"class_list":["post-11534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-march-2022","category-eastern-europe","category-focus","category-ukraine","category-2313","category-conflict_and_security","tag-ukraine","tag-russia","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-security","tag-conflict"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>FOCUS on Ukraine: Inside Russia - The Diplomatic Envoy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/thediplomaticenvoy\/2022\/03\/21\/focus-on-ukraine-inside-russia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FOCUS on Ukraine: Inside Russia - The Diplomatic Envoy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Russian President Vladimir Putin is invading Ukraine. As illogical as the move seems from the perspective of internal politics, the Kremlin\u2019s foreign policy is an attempt at bringing back the olden days of Soviet nationalist sentiment.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/thediplomaticenvoy\/2022\/03\/21\/focus-on-ukraine-inside-russia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Diplomatic Envoy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-21T18:00:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Christopher Ben\u00edtez Cuartas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Christopher Ben\u00edtez Cuartas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.shu.edu\\\/thediplomaticenvoy\\\/2022\\\/03\\\/21\\\/focus-on-ukraine-inside-russia\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.shu.edu\\\/thediplomaticenvoy\\\/2022\\\/03\\\/21\\\/focus-on-ukraine-inside-russia\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Christopher Ben\u00edtez Cuartas\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.shu.edu\\\/thediplomaticenvoy\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c56ea82ee5c7c78b82f2a1949f5114c5\"},\"headline\":\"FOCUS on Ukraine: Inside Russia\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-21T18:00:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.shu.edu\\\/thediplomaticenvoy\\\/2022\\\/03\\\/21\\\/focus-on-ukraine-inside-russia\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":602,\"commentCount\":0,\"keywords\":[\"Ukraine\",\"Russia\",\"Vladimir Putin\",\"security\",\"Conflict\"],\"articleSection\":[\"March 2022\",\"Eastern Europe\",\"Focus\",\"Ukraine\",\"2022\",\"Conflict and Security\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.shu.edu\\\/thediplomaticenvoy\\\/2022\\\/03\\\/21\\\/focus-on-ukraine-inside-russia\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.shu.edu\\\/thediplomaticenvoy\\\/2022\\\/03\\\/21\\\/focus-on-ukraine-inside-russia\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.shu.edu\\\/thediplomaticenvoy\\\/2022\\\/03\\\/21\\\/focus-on-ukraine-inside-russia\\\/\",\"name\":\"FOCUS on Ukraine: Inside Russia - 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