Putin loves pathos and claims that Russia is the most successful, most powerful and happiest country on Earth. However, these claims do not correspond to reality, writes RND.
In 1787, the Russian Prince Potemkin showed Empress Catherine the Great a fake village on the Crimean Peninsula, just to convince her that the region in question was flourishing. Like him today, Vladimir Putin in turn resorts to similar bluffs - to convince his compatriots that everything is going smoothly in Russia. The German media network RND analyzed the Russian president's fabrications in an article entitled "Vladimir Putin's Seven Tales". At the beginning of the publication, it is stated that even at the ceremony for the beginning of his fifth term, his "suffering compatriots" again they heard "numerous tales and promises".
The tale of the united and great nation
"We are a united and great nation," Putin said at his May inauguration ceremony in Moscow. But he should put his statement in the past tense, according to the authors of RND. Because within the mandate of Putin "the great" people are melting: Russia's population has decreased by nearly 7 million people, according to the calculations of the independent demographer Alexey Raksha. The birth rate in his country is one of the lowest in Europe - already in 2021, one mother had 1.2 children. And in 2023, the birth rate dropped by another 28% compared to 2021. In addition, hundreds of thousands left the country. And at least 50,000 Russian soldiers died in the war against Ukraine. According to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the number of dead Russians may even exceed 350,000. There is already a shortage of manpower in Russia, RND notes. And the distribution of income is too uneven. It also leads to the depopulation of entire regions, especially in the north and east. According to Raksha's estimates, the natural population decline this year will be half a million people. And it will refer to "unity": this year Vladimir Putin allowed himself to be re-elected with 87% of the votes. But the election frauds have long been a fact, and through the drastic sanctions and mysterious deaths among the opposition, the president has ensured himself a straight "graveyard peace", under whose shadow the word "unity" sounds quite strange.
The tale of the fourth largest economy
As Putin assured, marking the development goals until 2030, "the Russian economy will continue to occupy fourth place in the world" based on its GDP. But is he right? Statistics put Russia in sixth place in 2022, RND points out, explaining that the military economy is currently acting as a giant economic development program. Huge investments are being made in the arms industry, wages in the sector have more than doubled. But this trend cannot be permanent, and because of the investments in the military industry, other industries are suffering. According to some experts, the situation resembles that of the end of the USSR - then also all the inflated costs of the military-industrial complex suddenly collapsed.
The tale of healthy and happy people
Putin is generous with promises. By 2030, he also promises this: "The share of poverty among the population will not be higher than seven percent, and the minimum wage will reach at least 35,000 rubles. Life expectancy will become 78 years. Each woman will give birth to 1.6 children. Every Russian will have at least 33 square meters. living area...". And so on.
However, the reality looks different, as RND writes. From the statistics of the World Health Organization from 2019 (there are none more current), it can be seen that Russia has the highest suicide rate after South Africa: 21.6 people per 100,000. And in the so-called "happiness index" the country occupies a not-so-prestigious 72nd place, far behind all the countries of the "decadent West", which Putin likes to denigrate.
In addition, the average life expectancy has fallen to 71 years, for men to 66. "This is less than in North Korea, Syria and Bangladesh,", said on this occasion to the "Washington Post" the historian Max Booth. And according to the British "Economist", during the pandemic in Russia, Covid-19 claimed the lives of between 1.2 and 1.6 million people.
The tale of "the great prospects for Russian youth"
"Prospects will be created for the education of harmoniously developed, patriotic and socially responsible individuals, which are based on traditional Russian spiritual, moral, cultural and historical values,", the Russian president promised. But this is what the reality described by RND looks like: as early as kindergarten, children are trained in "placing mines" or the collection of ammunition, and every week begins with patriotic classes, pre-war training is also held.
The tale of innovations in Russian technology
"Half of the planes will be Russian. The air mobility of the population will increase by one and a half times compared to 2023, reads another promise of Putin. According to the site "Medusa" however, quoted by RND, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade and the state-owned company "Rostech" have announced that they are postponing "the program for the delivery of domestic aircraft to replace the Western-made aircraft of Russian airlines" for the coming years. Putin, and many other Russian politicians, regularly promised that Russia would produce "over a thousand" the airplane to increase the "air mobility of the population". But for now, they will only be left with the promise.
But Putin did not fail to boast about the new luxury car "Aurus", the initiative for the creation of which was the Russian president's own. The German media network points out on this occasion that, due to Western sanctions since the beginning of the war, Russian streets are dominated by outdated Lada models. and "Niva", more and more cars of Chinese manufacturers.
And more: the military parade on Red Square on May 9 on the occasion of the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, which before always was a kind of demonstration of Russian weapons, this year was surprisingly old-fashioned: instead of the T-14, praised by propaganda as " "miracle tank", the production of which was recently discontinued, a single tank passed through the square: the T-34-85, which was as much as 80 years old.
The tale of invincible Russia
"A people with such an attitude cannot be defeated. We were absolutely invincible - that's how we are today," Putin said in the fall of 2023. And others repeat the same thing, without taking into account historical realities, writes RND and recalls that only in the last century Russia has lost more wars than it has won : the conflict in Afghanistan (1979-1989), the Cold War, the Soviet-Finnish War (in the winter of 1939-1940), the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921) or the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).
Probably many Russians are afraid of Putin, but do not believe his stories, notes RND. Simply because they never trusted those in power like Potemkin. But in the West, Putin's strong-arm tactics seem to be having an effect - at least because they cause fear.