What Lies Ahead For Russia

• 26.07.2026, 22:05

When lies become more powerful than the state.

No one in Russia understands why Ukraine attacked Russia. But there’s at least one thing they know for sure: those damned Europeans are pushing Ukraine from behind.

When people live in a distorted world for a very long time, they lose their grasp of cause-and-effect relationships. At first, propaganda distorts their view of the world.

And then people themselves contribute to distorting their own worldview, because it’s safer that way. It’s safer not to speak, not to think, not to know. If you try hard enough not to know something, you won’t know it.

That is why the fuel crisis in Russia is not caused by the war—it is an artificial crisis, a conspiracy by oil oligarchs against ordinary Russians. That’s why the attacks on Russian marketplace warehouses aren’t caused by the war—they’re targeted attacks orchestrated by major international marketplaces seeking to take over the Russian market.
This can’t be a war, because there is no war. For years, they’ve been told on TV that there is no war. There’s only a “special military operation,” and that’s something completely different.

And besides, why is all this happening on Russian territory? It shouldn’t be that way, since the “special military operation” is taking place in Ukraine.

And anyway, it was all Ukraine shelling itself just to post photos. That’s why there are no anti-war movements—after all, there’s no war. (But during the Afghan and Chechen wars, there were massive movements.) So don’t count on it getting through to them.

Don’t expect a revolt against the regime. The regime will simply collapse because it won’t be able to function any longer. And at that moment, shrewd businessmen will strip everything for parts. There are no idealists right now, but there are plenty of greedy people.

Valery Pekar, “Facebook”