The Telegraph: Pandora's Box For Russia
- 29.03.2026, 16:54
The Putin regime's policies have had unexpected consequences.
The years-long inculcation of hatred against Ukrainians and dissidents, as well as the active militarization of society - including children and teenagers - are beginning to have dangerous consequences for Russia. According to The Telegraph, the country could face a massive wave of domestic and ideologically motivated violence.
The journalists cite alarming examples: schoolchildren, often girls, are attacking classmates and teachers during class. Knives, hammers, homemade incendiary mixtures and in some cases firearms are used.
Some attacks have a clear ideological background: the attackers demonstrate far-right and neo-Nazi views.
The scale of the problem is already so large that Vladimir Putin drew attention to it during a meeting of the board of the Russian Interior Ministry. According to The Moscow Times, 117 such incidents have occurred in Russian schools since 2000, almost half of them in the last five years.
Possible ideological reasons are also evidenced by recommendations for teachers: they are asked to identify "potentially dangerous" students, including by paying attention to their interest in history and social studies.
Russian authorities offer their own explanations for what is happening. Thus, the speaker of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, links the aggression of teenagers to the influence of video games and LGBT. Similar statements have been made by other government officials.
At the same time, independent experts point to other reasons, primarily the increasing militarization of the school environment, especially after the outbreak of a full-scale war against Ukraine.
Professor of the Pilecki Institute and author of the book "Generation Z" Ian Garner believes that the increase in radicalization of young people is associated with the formation of "a particularly violent culture in schools."
"Teenagers are constantly confronted with the theme of war: they listen to veterans' stories about violence and killings at the front. They often lack parental attention. It is believed that many Russians are far from the war, but in fact it is gradually returning to their daily lives," he noted.