In the event of a shutdown, government agencies stop receiving funding, civil servants do not get paid, and consequently, most government institutions in the country cease to operate, except for those vital to life. The last time such an event occurred was six years ago—during Donald Trump's first presidential term.

#America #BarackObama #state #DemocraticPartyoftheUnitedStates #JoeBiden #DonaldTrump #healthcare #society #rightandleft #RepublicanPartyoftheUnitedStates #insurance #finance

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Today turns 73. He intends to live—that is, to rule—until the end of his days, though it’s not yet clear whether they will be his own or yours. And if you want to drink champagne to the repose of his soul (in which, admittedly, there are doubts), you’ll have to wait another twenty or thirty years. And I’m not being ironic. I’m talking about a sensible life strategy.

#VladimirPutin #state #dictatorship #DmitryKiselev #DmitryMedvedev #YevgenyPrigogine #kgb #MargaritaSimonyan #Bulk #society #aftertheUSSR #freedom #SergeyKiriyenko #Emigration

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«Most.Media,» in collaboration with the magazine «Region.Expert,» launches a regular weekly review of events occurring in the fields of regional politics, economy, and culture. For many Russian media, as well as for free Russian-language publications outside Russia, this topic often still seems secondary and provincial. But such a snobbish-centralist approach has repeatedly failed — throughout various historical changes, Russia’s geographical borders have shifted, and many former provinces of the empire became independent countries. If we aim to look to the future, some promising trends need to be tracked and analyzed today.

#future #state #imperialism #society #opposition #aftertheUSSR #Regions #Russia #JuliaNavalnaya

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The Ministry of Finance announced the initial budget parameters for 2026 and 2027-28, as well as changes in tax legislation that will help implement this budget. And this is a wartime budget.

#business #budget #WarinUkraine #state #minfin #Taxation #society #Russia #finance

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Dictatorships have a tendency to completely distort the phenomenon of patriotism. Natural human sympathies for the nature and culture of their country are replaced by demands for unconditional loyalty to the ruling regime. Saltykov-Shchedrin already noted this, reflecting on those who confuse the concepts of «Fatherland» and «Your Excellency.» Later, a grim Soviet joke appeared: when the state needs something from its citizens, it calls itself the «Motherland.» And always with a capital letter. Under such conditions, patriotism turns into a form of Stockholm syndrome, where hostages begin to sympathize with their captors.

#AlexeiNavalny #Belarus #state #citizenship #west #IlyaYashin #society #opposition #Patriotism #politicalprisoners #aftertheUSSR #repressions #Russia #Emigration #essay

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Following the column by commentator Tatyana Rybakova «The War Won. Why Putin Decided to ‘Squeeze’ the Economy» on «Most,» a discussion arose with economist Nikolay Kulbaka. Their conversation quickly went beyond the text’s topic. Moreover, the interlocutors decided to continue the discussion after the publication of the Russian Federation’s draft budget. For now, they debated whether a course toward Stalin-type industrialization has been taken and whether such economic policy is possible in Russia’s current realities.

#AnnaTsivileva #business #VladimirPutin #war #militaryindustrialcomplex #state #discussion #capitalism #KirillDmitriev #nationalization #society #oligarchs #redistributionofproperty #Russia #LaborandCapital #Ukraine #chaebols #elites

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When the state promises to leave everything necessary for life, it almost always means that the «extra» will disappear. Russia is officially moving to a filtered communication regime: mobile internet is increasingly jammed regionally, and the window to the outside is narrowed to a «white list» of approved services — banks, marketplaces, loyal social networks, and government portals. At the same time, citizens are being forced to use the state messenger MAX — a «patriotic» replacement for WhatsApp/Telegram, built without end-to-end encryption and with direct access for law enforcement agencies. This is not a set of disparate measures but a coherent architecture of digital isolation. And it is already in operation.

#state #theInternet #China #society #Russia #censorship

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Two autocrats – and Chairman Xi – talked last week in Beijing about the perception of age (at 70, still boys) and eternal life, which will soon become possible thanks to organ transplants; in any case, living to 150 is not a problem at all. However, in the Russian case, the Constitution will have to be changed once again so that the presidential terms of the current head of state are not limited to 2036 but extend much further in time. But that is definitely not a problem.

#autocracy #future #VladimirPutin #WarinUkraine #gerontocracy #state #dictatorship #longevity #lifeinRussia #conformism #society #XiJinping #Utopia #futurology #essay

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Last week, during the Eastern Economic Forum, acknowledged problems with the slowdown of the Russian economy but added that victory over inflation is more important – supposedly, it's better for the people. However, the issue is not the welfare of the citizens. The continuation of the war requires increased spending on it. And here, strict monetary policy is unavoidable. This will result in the labor of the majority of Russian citizens becoming cheaper.

#Analytics #VladimirPutin #militaryKeynesianism #WarinUkraine #GermanGref #state #monetarypolicy #lifeinRussia #society #Economy #ElviraNabiullina

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Masha Moskalyova is a girl whose fate shocked even those familiar with political repression. After the 12-year-old drew an anti-war picture at school, she endured several FSB interrogations, searches, psychological pressure, long months in a shelter, separation from her father—who was imprisoned for a couple of anti-war posts on social media—and, finally, forced emigration. We spoke with Masha about what she went through and how her life is now.

#WarinUkraine #state #interview #personalexperience #society #protests #repressions #parentsandchildren #Russia #familyandschool #Emigration

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Centuries changed, but the old pattern remained. It was not so much dangerous criminals who ended up with the executioners, but rather random people and disgraced members of the elite.

#1937 #state #dictatorship #Empire #History #worldwideisolation #monarchy #society #executionersandvictims #PetertheGreat #Putin #torture #repressions #Russia #MiddleAges #theUSSR #Stalin

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The law establishing the national messenger was signed by Putin at the end of June 2025. Since yesterday, it has been fully operational in Moscow and three other regions: schoolchildren and first-year university students are required to switch to Max.

#state #dictatorship #theInternet #China #instantmessengers #Moscow #society #Orwell #Putin #Russia #freedom #Stalin #censorship #digitalsurveillance

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Yesterday, the human rights project «No to Gulag» reported, citing its sources, about the deportation of several dozen Russians from the USA to Russia via Cairo, among whom were political asylum seekers. Anna Shumova, an activist of the American nonprofit organization Russian Seattle for Freedom, is aware of the stories of several passengers on this flight. We spoke with her.

#America #state #deportation #immigrationzone #interview #society #politicalconclusions #Putin #repressions #Russia #Trump

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The twenty-fifth anniversary of the tragedy of the nuclear submarine cruiser K-141 Kursk in the Barents Sea passed unnoticed. No memorial ceremonies, solemn speeches, monument unveilings, or film premieres. On the anniversary of the explosion on the Kursk (August 12), if one believes his official website, the head of state only spoke by phone with Kim Jong Un and held a meeting on economic issues. The censored segment of Runet got away with a few concise publications, and some authors described what happened in August 2000 as an «accident».

#Berezovsky #Beslan #WarinUkraine #state #money #west #historicalmemory #catastrophe #NTV #society #ort #Pavlovsky #politicaltechnologies #aftertheUSSR #Putin #Russia #Kursk

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There was social art, now there is social arch; there were oligarchs and patriarchs – now there are social archs. Putinism is a neo-totalitarian power plus the social archization of the entire country. They were engineers of human souls – now they are specialists in «reverse» social engineering. But let’s leave this Zamyatinism and Orwellianism aside – everything in order.

#state #dictatorship #Dostoevsky #ideology #KonstantinBogomolov #neototalitarianism #society #Orwell #politicaltechnologies #postmodernism #Putinism #Russia #technocrats #thick

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Across the country, bookstores are undergoing searches and prosecutor inspections. Publishers send them lists of «banned» books that must be removed from sale and destroyed. All foreign agent books must be sold by the end of summer: from September 1, any educational activity by authors with this status will be prohibited. How do small bookstores in the regions survive under these conditions? A report from Rostov-on-Don, where, despite all difficulties, there are three such stores.

#business #foreignagents #Books #LGBT #youth #society #education #Regions #reportage #repressions #Russia #securityforces #south

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Irina Krynyina is the first wife of a Russian prisoner of war who came to Ukraine in the fall of 2023 to be with her civilian husband. Since then, not only her life but also her motivations have changed dramatically. Leaving behind a comfortable life in her native Krasnoyarsk, Krynyina, together with other Russian women living in Ukraine, founded the movement «Our Way Out» – and now helps relatives of Russian prisoners of war locate them in Ukrainian captivity. We spoke with Irina about how former captives can avoid being sent back to war.

#WarinUkraine #women #personalexperience #mobilization #society #prisoners #Russia #Ukraine

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On August 6, a gala concert of the «SVO Ballads» festival took place in Moscow’s Zaryadye Park. It was organized by Monk Kiprian — a veteran of the Afghan war, Hero of the Soviet Union, and a fan of singer-songwriter music in civilian life. A correspondent from «Most» reports on how it all unfolded.

#WarinUkraine #cringe #Moscow #society #Patriotism #aftertheUSSR #postmodernism #reportage #Russia #church

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A hallmark of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes is a lack of taste and complete insensitivity to what happens to people. Along with a passion for regulating everything, which extends into controlling everyday life relationships. Uniformity very often turns out ugly. But here’s the problem: the state has launched a reboot of neo-totalitarianism in a modernized and diverse society.

#ValentinaMatvienko #ValentinaTereshkova #power #state #children #dictatorship #fashion #society #postmodernism #Parents #family #school

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Today, many representatives of national-regional movements in political exile have a clear disappointment in the Russian federal project, since it has repeatedly (both after 1918 and after 1991) led only to yet another revival of a centralist empire. Therefore, they find no common ground even with the new liberal opposition, which in its dreams of a beautiful future Russia sometimes oddly repeats Kremlin unitarist ideas.

#future #decoloniality #Yeltsin #Empire #History #nation #society #aftertheUSSR #protests #Putin #republics #Russia #federalism #language

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