Tanja Maier Profile picture
Mar 4 6 tweets 2 min read
I can’t listen anymore to discourse from smart people sitting safely in the west talking about what might come next. Even my favorite podcasts. Ukraine is suffering immeasurable loss, a human tragedy on an incomprehensible scale. And it’s here, right here. And they are there.
My Russian friends are spread all over; many left Moscow long ago. They are all going through their own private battles right now. Some men fled yesterday, destination unknown. Some Russians who cried on Thursday are now really angry — but not at Putin, they blame west/Ukraine.
It’s going to get even uglier. It’s going to hit even closer to home. It’s not going to be just limited to Ukraine. These wounds are forever wounds. They don’t heal. The hatred stays. The anger lasts. It’s going to be like walking on eggshells. Truth will become very subjective.
I see now, I feel today, how friendships and relationships might fall apart in an instant. How lives change in a matter of minutes. What it means when people feel they are fighting for raw survival. It can bring out both the best and worst in people. I’m trying to remain level.
P.S. Russia deep fake game is going next level and it has all the babushki believing all of it — that every Russian person in the west is now enemy number one. I just got sent a photo of “email” from a Munich doctor refusing to treat Russian patients anymore…in perfect German.
P.P.S. sharing this again for the evening crowd. I usually write every morning Europe time. On the weekends it's sometimes afternoons. I hope most of this is still relevant 10 hours later, free to subscribe: tanjamaier.substack.com/p/day-9?s=w

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More from @tanjamaier17

Mar 5
My Moscow feed went silent. The mommy groups have moved to telegram and are scared to write anything. Soon the only way to get real info out of Moscow will be old fashioned phone calls on fixed lines, and who still has those? I fear Fortress Russia = information black hole.
There is strength in numbers but I don’t see Gen X rallying to protest. I see them leaving if they can. What will the young do? I don’t know. In the regions people are just trying to survive let’s not forget economic crisis. The Soviet shut up mentality does live on for many.
It sounds ridiculous to write this but memories of war and also of gulag are passed down by generations. Everyone in Russia knows the one thing you want to avoid is prison or worse. Can they arrest everyone? No. But no one wants to be the first. Any revolt has to come from elite.
Read 7 tweets
Mar 5
Morning 🧵 6am Ukraine time update via google translate t.me/kievreal1/10100 ImageImage
This is what an evacuation train to Lviv looks like now standing room only can’t get to the toilet t.me/kharkivlife1/2…
The brave people of Melitopol (under Russian occupation) t.me/our_odessa/264…
Read 7 tweets
Mar 4
Some TikToks 💛💙 the eggs thing here got lost in translation but use your imagination
Kherson has been occupied by Russian forces. No words.
💔 she is absolutely right, I almost lost it today completely when someone tried to hint Putin must have had *reasons*
Read 4 tweets
Mar 4
Next vulnerable domino but not the only one
A penny just dropped. We are worried about Moldova but today I heard from two separate Russians about the TikToks. The TikToks (which interestingly Russia did not block and we know pays people to make pro-Russian content) from Moldova. About Ukrainian refugees.
The TikToks are recorded by Moldovans in Russian and basically say: Ukrainian refugees aren't grateful, get mad when we speak Russian instead of Ukrainian to them, our help isn't good enough, etc. I thought what the hell, is this real? Now it makes sense. Part of the propaganda.
Read 4 tweets
Mar 4
The videos of the Russian POWs calling their mothers sitting in front of Ukrainian flags are heartbreaking. Even if scripted (surely), the moms have no idea, have consumed Russian TV, think someone will soon rescue the kids. The boys are forced to say such things...
...that I don't see how they can come home to Russia after that. They are in tears. They so young. They are traumatised, it's hard to tell what is real but when they say everyone else died and our commanders just abandoned us I imagine that's 100% true.
They say "Mama, only you can stop the war, you have to take to the streets" and you know exactly that mom will barely be able to call the local army base to explain her son it seems is a POW in Ukraine. These moms cannot be the revolution. They don't understand what is happening.
Read 4 tweets
Mar 4
Afternoon 🧵 Kyiv mayor t.me/KyivCityOffici…
In occupied Kherson the Russians don’t want to open a humanitarian corridor and instead hand out food which they just looted from Ukrainian shops while filming it all for Russian state TV cameras t.me/kharkiv_1654/2…
Meanwhile mini dictator Lukashenko gave a speech explaining why they must “defend their southern border for the security of the continent and maybe even the whole world” (yes, really) t.me/pul_1/4936
Read 10 tweets

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