Thread by @YaroslavConway

Since Western Right has lost its own mind and decided to crown Vladimir Putin as the holy protector of the free market, family values, Christianity, dick jokes and everything sacred — here's a short and entertaining thread on what Putin really does and why you should be horrified

Let's start with the obvious. Many people imagine that Putin is somehow anti-socialist and pro-market. Perhaps, they're deceived by the low income tax of 13%, which is in fact much lower than in most Western countries. Many Russians are deceived by this as well.

The trick is that most taxes in Russia are indirect and hidden. In addition to 13% income tax, you also have 22% retirement contribution paid by your boss. 8% tax for healthcare and insurance. 20% VAT paid from most products and services. Road tax. Oil and gas tax. Property tax.

Most invisible to the consumer, because they're paid by businesses - and included in the price of everything. If you combine the income tax, VAT and pension contribution alone, you're already giving away more than half of your salary. We're talking about Swedish socialism here.

But unlike Sweden, Russia doesn't provide meaningful social services. Here's a report from the Accounts Chamber: a third of Russian child clinics don't have... WATER SUPPLY! And 40% don't have heating. Imagine bringing you sick child to a clinic without heating in Russian winter

The Russian schools are not much better. In 2022, in a country that's the biggest natural gas exporter in the world, many schools are heated by burning firewood. That's 22 years after Putin got in power and supposedly made Russia great again.

If you think that money went to some other social service, you're mistaken. Here's pensions: an average retirement fee is 220$. The average cost of living, according to Numbeo, is closer to 600$. Our seniors are literally starving. Or freezing to death, depending on a region.

And here's another bit of pro-market Putin for you. According to the official sources, Russian government produces a much as 70% of surplus product and controls more than half of the economy. There goes your free market.

Russians are paying European taxes in exchange for third-world level of social support. Perhaps, now you understand where all those yachts and palaces are coming from. Now for another outlandish claim: Putin is against wokeness, PC and cancel culture.

First of all, Political correctness was invented in Soviet Union (check it on Wikipedia, for once). It literally means "being in accord with the party line". And make no mistake, modern day Russia embodies this ethos still. Here are a few examples.

A city deputy, Alexei Gorinov, was imprisoned for 7 years. His crime — refusing to call war in Ukraine "special military operation" (that's Russian equivalent of using wrong pronouns, apparently) and suggesting it's unethical to organize drawing competition in time of war.

Ilya Yashin @IlyaYashin, a prominent opposition figure, was sentenced to 8.5 years of prison because he talked about Bucha on his stream. That's why they also banned him from running Internet resources.

And here's a list of artists who are banned by Kremlin because of their politically incorrect views. All of these are very famous in Russia, some are world-famous. Manizha represented Russia on Eurovision, for example.

Ok, you say. Russia is a quasi-socialist state with no social care, that has censorship, cancel culture and its own PC culture. Fine! We're ok with that. You know why? Family, my friend! Putin loves family values, and those are what matters!
Well, let me ruin your day.

Let's start with family values. Russia has a very high single motherhood rate. One might say that this reflects more on the quality of Russian men, than on Vladimir Putin. But the government does jack shit to support these mothers.

Unlike many other countries, Russians don't really have child benefits like social daycare etc. Instead we have mother's capital, a one-time payment intended for improving housing conditions (it can only be used to buy a house, land plot etc).

The payment is about 8300$ for the first child and 2800$ for the second child. Combined, these are equivalent to 13 months of average salary — and that's it. For comparison, a square meter in a newly-built house costs on average 1750$. So you can buy about 6.5 meters of housing.

An average American one-car garage is 24 square meters. So for your mother's capital you can buy a piece of housing the size of one quarter of a garage. If you're looking for old buildings, perhaps you could afford one half of a garage. Enjoy your motherhood.

Unsurprisingly, few women in Russia are enthusiastic about having a child. Median salary in Russia is about 500$, so one half of Russians can barely afford the normal everyday expenses (which are 400$, according to Numbeo). Having a child is an economic suicide.

This results in another mind-blowing statistic: abortion rate. In 2021 there were about 450 000 legal abortions, compared to 1.4M children born. That's one abortion for every three children born. And with living conditions like that, you're not fixing this with a piece of paper.

Putin's "support for family values" exhibits itself in a form of persecuting gays and feminists. And since neither of them were ever in power in Russia, they had nothing to do with the demise of Russian family. The family was ruined by Putin's economic and social policies.

Ok, you say. Fuck the family. Fuck the economy. Fuck freedom of speech. Putin defends Christianity. God is what it's all about. As long as my God is hailed, I'm willing to eat as much shit as the siloviki are going to feed me. Putin loves God and Christianity!
Or does he?

We can debate about the role of Russian Orthodox Church in Russian society. What we can't do is deny that it's run by another of Putin's oligarchs, stained in numerous corruption scandals. According to the Orthodox Church, by the way, he's not supposed to have any property at all

Patriarch Kirill is also suspected of dealing with the KGB. Though this is not surprising, given that Orthodox Church was thoroughly infiltrated and controlled by the KGB during most of USSR history.

As for the source of money, apart from free stuff given by the Church, Kirill most likely made his fortune selling tobacco.

After all of this, one shouldn't be surprised to learn that Russian Orthodox Church has long since stopped being an independent religious organization and turned into an instrument of government propaganda, supporting every decision of Vladimir Putin.

So, what do we have in the end?
✅ High taxes
✅ No social support
✅ Ruined families
✅ Sky-high abortion rate
✅ Censorship, PC and cancel culture
✅ Church is a puppet of Chekist regime

This is how big of a supporter of conservative values Vladimir Putin is. Too bad the right-wingers in the West have trouble using Google.

600$*