Moscow is concerned about the situation in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have entered. In Russia, there are numerous angry speeches in support of the people of Kursk.
Russian public officials now curse and trash the Ukrainian authorities, as well as the Western authorities.
That's pretty much it. This noise will soon stop, especially provided that, at some point, the Russian army will obviously regain control of that territory.
The concern will soon stop because there is only one province Moscow is truly worried about, and that is not Kursk. Moscow cares about Moscow.
The occupation of Kursk by Ukrainian armed forces revealed two peculiar parallel realities. The reality of what is expected from Russia and the true Russian reality.
High expectations
After Kursk's occupation, the Kremlin is likely to face significant pressure. Expectations are that the war will finally awaken the Russian people, causing them to experience stress, fatigue, and anxiety.
There are expectations that the Russian people will finally realise that the war is not unfolding as the Kremlin initially promised—with a swift and glorious victory.
However, these expectations are false, and the true general moods in Russia are quite the opposite.
The Russians love Vladimir Putin passionately, as before; he is not under pressure, and he does not care about what is happening in Kursk
The Russians love Vladimir Putin passionately, as before; he is not under pressure, and he does not care about what is happening in Kursk. He has already set the country on a path of war long before he knew that there would be significant casualties and losses until the West, as Vladimir Putin anticipates, finally collapses and begs for peace.
Mutual feelings of Moscow and Kursk
Given the disastrous failure of the initial occupation of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is generally prepared and anticipates further setbacks in the future. As long as the war doesn't affect Moscow, he feels extremely at ease.
People from Moscow can send their thoughts and prayers to Kursk, as they do now, but no one in Moscow sincerely cares about Kursk.
The feeling, by the way, is mutual. This is why none of the top security chiefs appointed by Vladimir Putin are Moscow-born Muscovites.
The Russian opposition cowardly attempted to strike a balance between blaming Vladimir Putin for the attack on Kursk and condemning the Ukrainians for the occupation of Kursk.
The Ukrainian actions in Kursk have generally not shaken or stunned Russian society
It was indeed very peculiar to see that even recently re-released and currently stationed in Europe, former political prisoners refrained from aligning themselves with Ukrainian armed forces.
The Ukrainian actions in Kursk have generally not shaken or stunned Russian society. They have long been exposed to an alternative reality, according to which "Ukrainian fascists" have already occupied Russian territories in the Donbass region since the collapse of the USSR.
An average Russian TV viewer is convinced that Ukrainian forces have been attacking peaceful and humble Russki civilians since at least 2014. Therefore, the occupation of Kursk has not changed much in their view of the entire crisis. It just added some additional colours to it.
The only difference is that the Ukrainian forces this time showed greater efficiency, but this is attributed to the West, which intensified its assistance to Ukraine.
“It sank!”
In order to summarise the reaction of the Russian people to the Kursk occupation by the Ukrainians, it is helpful to recall the events from the past, which happened precisely 24 years ago, on August 12, 2000, about one year after Vladimir Putin assumed power from Boris Yeltsin.
When reporters questioned Vladimir Putin, who had already been serving his first term as president, about the Kursk submarine tragedy, he ruthlessly and briefly responded, "It sank" - Kursk Submarine Memorial
On that day, as a result of the incompetence of Russian higher commanders and their obsession with keeping everything secret, the Russian submarine K-141 Kursk, with 118 people on board, was hit, not assisted, and eventually perished in the Barents Sea.
Back in those days, the Russian media was a lot more independent.
When reporters questioned Vladimir Putin, who had already been serving his first term as president, about the Kursk submarine tragedy, he ruthlessly and briefly responded, "It sank."
Twenty-four years later, by observing the Russian people’s and the Russian authorities’ reaction to the occupation of the Kursk region by the Ukrainian forces in retaliation for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, we can firmly state that Russia, under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, has sunk.
Unfortunately, the government, the opposition, and the Russian majority have all sunk to the bottom and will not reach the surface on their own.
