Russia is Freezing
The Kremlin warned Europe of Ice Age in winter 2022
In December 2022, Russia Today, the Kremlin’s mouthpiece, issued a chilling ultimatum to Europe: “Give up now or you’ll soon be eating hamsters in the dark.”
This was not an isolated incident; it echoed a previous warning from Gazprom, once the world’s largest gas supplier, now reduced to a mere 8% of global market share, who had earlier warned of Europe facing an “Ice Age.”
Russia’s tactics were clear: weaponize its energy exports to coerce Europe into acquiescing to its demands in the ongoing war in Ukraine. The message was stark: Europe’s comfort and prosperity were now hostage to the whims of the Kremlin.
Europe survived the 2022 Winter. They are more than equipped to handle the current winter. Gas storage levels around Europe is either at or above all time highs. They are way above the all time curve.
But Russia is freezing, as the Tsar went missing
In the biting cold of Russia’s harsh winter, the 31st Fighter Aviation Regiment stationed at the Millerovo Air Base faces an unexpected hardship: a lack of firewood to keep warm. Russian ultranationalists have taken up the cause of their struggling comrades, mobilizing on social media to gather donations of firewood and supplies to help the aviators endure the frigid conditions.
Ilya Tumanov, a prominent Russian military figure and propagandist, who, through his influential channel ‘Fighterbomber,’ called upon his followers to support their colleagues at Millerovo. Tumanov emphasized the dire situation, stating, “Aviators need help. They’re freezing f*ck. Need firewood to stoke the furnaces at Millerovo airfield.”
If you are surprised why Russian ultranationalists are taking things into their social media hands to help struggling Russians, please don’t be… Alexandar Dugin, the far-right, ultranationalist, with anti-Western views, who is said to have shaped Putin’s worldview, will tell you why…
“Reality rests on those who believe in it. I think our Parliament does not exist, just as liberal democracy does not exist in Russia. But there is a monarchy and its head. And whatever he wants, so it will be. This law or another, it doesn’t matter who puts forward or supports it. All these dances of the boyars for the time being.
Until the formidable eye of the Sovereign paid attention to the pranks of this selfish and thieving (often simply unworthy) bastard. This is what I, as well as my people, believe in. And that means that it is so. Turn your eye, Sovereign, on your people who are freezing in the near Moscow region. Turn it around and it will be warm. If you don’t, they’ll steal the last one and everyone will freeze. What does the Duma, laws or Government have to do with it?”
He wrote this.
Every single word.
You can read it in his telegram channel. I did not take a screenshot because I don’t think he will ever delete it. It was written to an audience of one. So, I think it will stay.
So, what does the Duma, laws or Government have to do with the winter freeze biting Russians across the country? Nothing. All the money that could be spent is spent on the Russian war machine and its accessories. Since the Russian government can do nothing about it unless the Monarch wants something to be done, Russian ultranationalists are rallying for firewood on social media.
The situation in Moscow suburbs is increasingly desperate.
On Tuesday, Vladimir Putin ordered the nationalization of the Klimovsk Ammunition Plant, a gun cartridge factory in the Moscow region where a mechanical failure last week caused tens of thousands of people to lose heating. The outages, which affected over 20,000 people in the town of Podolsk, began when a heating main in the Klimovsk plant burst on January 4.
It wasn’t until January 7, however, that Moscow Governor Andrey Vorobyov first acknowledged the crisis.
Meduza, an indepedent Russian news outlet, said “Over 100,000 Moscow region residents have lost heat this year. The man being blamed for the largest outage has a criminal past”.
This is the usual strategy deployed by the Kremlin. Immediately order an investigation, find a shoulder to blame, throw a few in jail and praise the actions taken by government officials.
Job done.
Move on…
But winter is not going to go away that easily. We still have months left. The Russian system is creaking. It took weeks for the Russian officials to respond to a massive crisis. It was only after things got way too loud on social media and western reporting started to write about Moscow’s winter troubles the Kremlin stepped in.
Some 20,000 people in the cities of Klimovsk, Lyubertsy, and Podolsk, in the Moscow region, have been left without heating for days — some of them for weeks — as temperatures have dropped below -25C last week, Russian Telegram channel Baza reported. Local authorities declared an emergency.- Politico
We still do not know the status of towns and villages that are far away from Moscow. The Kremlin has responded to western reporting. Dugin says only the Monarch can decide. So, if you freeze, you freeze, because the Monarch has a lot of other things to do.
It is not even two months since the time the Russians were told they can only buy a limited number of eggs per day. As usual, Kremlin had ordered an investigation into rising egg prices and as usual they had arrested a few for inflating egg prices.
Who loses when two losers fight?
Nope.
I am not talking about Ukraine and the Kremlin.
I am talking about the leadership in the Western world and the Kremlin.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that the Russian economy is barely standing on its feet. They are using the oil and gas cash flow to keep a lid. Inflation is in double digits. Interest rates are in double digits. Ruble is playing hide and seek with the three digit and two digit dollar value and remains at its lowest level since the start of Ukraine invasion. The drop in value has helped a bit in increasing export revenue, but it has also made it expensive to import. The fall of Ruble is the root cause of rising egg prices and other food products.
But still. An economy without legs is running as fast as, or even faster than the western world in its fight for Ukrainian land.
Western leaders have a wide range of easy-to-implement measures at their disposal to end the war. They can take frozen Russian assets, give it to Ukraine, grant them the full blessing to buy weapons from anyone who is ready to sell. They can send the German Taurus missiles tomorrow, break the Kerch bridge, lock up Crimea and end the war in few months. They can give Ukraine the American long range ATACMS missiles in the hundreds, blow up all the warehouses in Russian occupied territory and drive the invading boots out of Ukrainian lands. They can step on the sanctions, spend a lot more time on enforcing the sanctions and suck the money that is flowing into Russian war efforts.
But Western leaders will not reach out for the low hanging fruits because a victory against Putin is way too scary to think about. They mindlessly allow the war to drift and keep moving from one month to the next. And that in many ways is exactly what Putin is also doing. His economy is performing so badly that any day could be the last. Every thousand workers he draws from this economy to send for death in Ukraine could be his last. He has no clue. No one will have any clue. He is living month to month. So do the western leaders
One loser to another.
So, what happens when two losers fight? I am not very sure. I think we will find out this year.
