In Putin's Russia, The Tsars Are Gone But The Oligarchs Are Here

바카라�Alexander Pushkin, Russian writer

Just a couple of days before we landed at the Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow, there had been a major drone attack by Ukraine in the Russian capital. It was, of course, thwarted. Like everything else here. Resistance, etc.

The world order is changing. Europe is arming itself. China says they are prepared for all wars. America is not so harsh on Russia anymore. Ceasefires are meaningless. Wartime is eternal.

Outside the airport, a huge billboard flashed, 바카라�Welcome to the City of Pushkin바카라�, and then advertisements followed.

The Tsars are long gone. But the oligarchs are here. There바카라�s luxury and materialism. A Russian guide talked about the boxes in which Russian aristocracy would sit in the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. She then showed us where President Vladimir Putin sits.

바카라�Take as many photos as you want,바카라� she said.

That evening, Richard Wagner바카라�s Die Walküre was to be performed.

바카라�It is a story about a conflict between the king of gods and his mortal son,바카라� the guide said. 바카라�The opera is luxury. Take more photos.바카라�

The Iron Curtain바카라�s gone, too. We are all the same people at the end of the day. We are all looking for stories of kings and queens and grandeur to compete against the other. The simple peasant girl immortalised in the wooden stacking dolls called Matryoshka dolls that were originally painted to look like a traditional Russian woman or 바카라�babushka바카라� wearing a sarafan바카라�designed first in 1890바카라�are now souvenirs. Motherland, they say.

There was no sign of war at first glance. While realignments were shaping up the new future of the world, we were watching the runway shows at Moscow Fashion Week last week, which had around 200 designers, including a few from other countries like Turkey, China and India who are 바카라�friendly바카라�.

Irreverent, unapologetic, arrogant, unrelenting and very stylish. Leather and silks and stilettos. Bold and uneasy. No longer conservative. Ever since its inception in 2022, the Moscow Fashion Week has become an aggressive and ambitious project, an answer to the western world바카라�s 바카라�Big Four바카라� fashion weeks. A real propaganda of a new Russia that바카라�s unabashed and no longer communist. Caviar and champagne and furs and high heels against the backdrop of the colourful onion-shaped domes of the Kremlin. A total new resistance to all sanctions and all opinions. Journalists, flown in and pampered, whisper warnings: don바카라�t search for politics here. The brave new world is watching. 바카라�Concentrate on the caviar and the luxury,바카라� one said. 바카라�This is Russia sticking its middle finger to the world. Russians can do everything. They are a superpower.바카라�

This place doesn바카라�t follow Western rules. Despite endless sanctions after the Ukraine war, Russia바카라�s economy persists. By 2024, 70 per cent of Russian bank assets and $350 billion in reserves were frozen. Major firms like McDonald바카라�s, Coca-Cola, Starbucks and Heineken exited, but the war machine endures, with Trump바카라�s return looming over future strategies.

But you can still find Starbucks coffee rebranded as Stars. The logo is altered. The Russian version of the siren has a black background. She wears a rounded crown and has a leaner face, but you still know that it바카라�s Starbucks, renamed and reclaimed. The two sirens could be sisters. Like the United States and the Russian Federation now. At least in Moscow, capitalism is on full display. In the luxury malls, Christian Dior and Hermes are displayed in the windows.

It is indeed a Dostoevsky phase. They are locked in a world that바카라�s their own. They are familiar with the old clashes of identity. They have chosen their heroes again.

The Iron Curtain, which was an economic and political barrier and also physical, in the case of the Berlin Wall that divided the communist and the capitalist nations, fell a long time ago.

But it is the history that still decides the identity. That바카라�s where the grandeur is.

You know from history and literature that Russia isn바카라�t scared of doom and despair. In fact, grief is a welcome holiday here, as Maxim Gorky, the Russian writer, had written. Russians have known autocracy. They are wilful participants in self-destruction.

That바카라�s a strength.

Despite a weak ruble and inflation, many Russians claim happiness. Dissent isn바카라�t fashionable. Outside Red Square, a war veteran waves flags bearing President Vladimir Putin바카라�s face in a quiet display.

바카라�More power to the President,바카라� he says.

Russkiy Mir바카라�Putin바카라�s ideology of Russian supremacy seems to work here. But then, in Russia, one never knows anything. One can바카라�t.

This is the second coming of Stalin.

Wars, bunkers, sirens. Pride, isolation and brazenness.

Remember always that grief is a welcome holiday here.

Buy the souvenirs and don바카라�t ask any questions.

See the fashion, eat the caviar and go home.

You got a Baba Yaga doll, fashioned after a character from Slavic folklore who lives in the forest in a hut perched on chicken legs. You read about her in the nineties in Russian folk tale books that were sold in book fairs in India.

바카라�Why the witch?바카라�

The young man said he was afraid of her as a child.

바카라�Because she is resistance, an ecofeminist.바카라�

But you don바카라�t say anything.

On the way back, you remember Pushkin again.

바카라�Better the illusions that exalt us than ten thousand truths,바카라� the Russian writer had written.

The illusions are very blinding here in Moscow.

Chinki Sinha is editor, outlook Magazine

This article is a part of Outlook's April 1, 2025 issue 'World At Reset', which explores the ongoing changes in the global geopolitical order. It appeared in print as 'Mother Russia'.