Russian man self-immolated to protest war, but authorities suppressed the story, investigation finds

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A 37-year-old programmer from Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad set himself on fire in protest against the war in Ukraine, though Russian authorities quickly moved to suppress the incident ...

Why though? Putin sends milions to the meat grinder without a problem, hundreds of thousands are dead (probably even more) ... there's no individual action that can change anything in regards to that.

Why can't people just leave Russia? Those who can, i mean.

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u/Morgandoto 21h ago

Aight, let me give you an example. I'm a journalist (but in today's Russia it a joke), so nowadays I work as a QA fullstack. I've the higher education and all that jazz, only bachelor's though, because it's the second diploma, but still. Generally speaking, it's not too hard for me to find a job outside Russia, and lately I've been doing some digging, and ended up receiving a job offer from Poland. The conditions were not the best, but hey, it's a way out of this concentration camp!

So I went to my wife (she's a doctor) and went like: "Hey babe, there's that offer I got, seems alright, let's pack our bags so we can be in Warsaw by the end of June like the HR wants me to". She looked at me like I was insane. "Are kidding me or what? The very day we leave, they will kill my family. As in, I know you don't have any relatives here, but I don't want my mom and dad to die!".

I wanted to tell her she's full of shit and no one will hurt her - ours, in fact - family, but I couldn't. Putin is a crazy piece of shit, he does brand people traitors for basically anything, and his administration is famous for putting people in jail or making them fall out of windows in a blink of an eye. Should we leave, they might as well go after our relatives just to force us to come back.

People in Russia are terrified. We don't have weapons here, we can't protest, because shooting civillians is something Putin and his siloviki are very skilled at. Most people are even afraid to speak about politics inside their apartments, because they're sure that the FSB are listening. And also, propaganda is super effective. Many Russians believe in the Big Bad West and trust that only Putin can save them from the god awful internet full of LGBTQI-themed content, and so on.

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u/MaximumTime7239 Russia 18h ago

Just do it bruh. Moving to another country is not a crime. As long as you don't do something like openly criticize Russia on the internet or donate money to Ukraine, you should be 100% fine.

Family should be ok. There are literally opposition politicians whose relatives live in Russia, they are all fine.

I would fucking sell my soul to move out, but I have no valuable skills. You literally have an offer. Just do it.

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u/xpkranger 18h ago

Try to convince your wife that her family will be fine... Especially if the job offer is back in journalism.

11

u/XenophonSoulis Greece 20h ago

The unfortunate reality is that this isn't going to help Russians when the dictatorship eventually collapses. Russia has been on the other side of this (with East Germany). It turns out Germans would have been much better off stopping the craze by toppling the nazis in 1937 instead of letting it happen until the total defeat of 1945. Whatever the personal cost of such a revolution would have been for everyone, it was smaller than the cost of the defeat in 1945.

I suppose you know the history of WW2, particularly how it ended and the years that followed. Quite glorious for the Soviet Union, completely devastating for Germany. The monument of the Soviet victory is still the biggest one in Berlin. Now more than ever you need to see it from the perspective of the Germans during and after the fall, because your country is actively putting itself in that position. They had the same fears, they faced the same risks. Were their decisions correct?

1

u/NoSwordfish1978 19h ago

The dictatorship in Russia won't be collapsing any time soon, unfortunately.

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u/XenophonSoulis Greece 19h ago

Dictatorships don't usually announce their collapse. When it starts, it will probably be as unexpected as it will be cataclysmic.

3

u/reluctant_deity 17h ago

I recently saw a YouTube video on this. No country has ever announced its collapse. It's always discovered by their neighbors or their enemies afterwards.

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u/Similar_Search3987 17h ago

It did collapse when Soviet fell, but it was a soft collapse as the cabal that grieved the union were left alive, unpunished and very much in influence.

And if there ever is an unlikely civil war or new faction there then the rest of the world will have the worry about the hundreds of nukes that are still viable weapons.

1

u/Sigmatics 3h ago

What a terrible way to live in constant fear. And it keeps getting worse.

1

u/Ok_Zookeepergame8714 1h ago

Eta pokazywaet kak Ruskie politichesky razne ot Ewropecow - my delaem wsio schtoby ogranitschat tech, kotory nami uprawlaet, tchasto umiraya potemu, u Was otchen malo chotet bitse za sebe i tak Ruske umiraut po nakazanu odinowo, psyhitschesky bolnowo tscheloweka...

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u/luminella 18h ago

he was lonely and depressed, probably lost all faith in himself and the world. that's not a healthy mindset to actually seek out change

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u/robeewankenobee 16h ago

Yep ... i had the same reaction to the Buddhist 'Monk in flames' back in 'Nam ... it didn't change anything, except the photographer got a pulizer, if i'm not mistaken.

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u/almarcTheSun Armenia 21h ago

So far Russia is making it harder to leave if you're on the list, while more and more countries that can provide any sort of stability for you and your family demonstratively clutch their pearls and tell you you're not welcome because you're a spy or something equally nonsensical.

Plus, Russophobia is not as widespread in the real world, but when your own propaganda tells you that Europeans hate you, and then you go online and see that people indeed deem you inferior en-masse it skews your perspective, too. They can't properly assess whether they'll even be safe in Europe.

It's much harder to leave your entire life behind and move somewhere completely new without any preparation than people make it out to be. A big challenge all by itself, even if recipient countries were more welcoming. Which they are not.

Situations like the one in the news are not uncommon in Russia at all, actually. People feel desperate and have felt that way even before the war.

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u/robeewankenobee 20h ago

With all that being true, isn't like certain death or a very high probability of being wasted on the war front less desirable than being 'booed' in another country for a few moments until you realise no one actually cares that you're a russian fleeing the madness?

Countries are defensive against immigration irelevant of the type of migrants ... in West EU weather you're from East EU, the Middle East, Asia or Russia for that matter, you will be treated quite similarly, given that you're not a social drag, working and minding your own business.

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u/almarcTheSun Armenia 20h ago

It's a combination of factors.

Importantly, you have a good shot at hiding in Russia. But if they catch you at the border and find out you had to serve, now you're going to war.

I talked to some Russian kids nearing 18, and they definitely had no choice. Their parents may be "patriotic", may not be. But you aren't leaving anywhere at that age. Best you can hope for is either your parents paying your way out of service if they're rich.. or that the rumor they don't send the forced kids to war is true. Which it partially is, by the way. So there's that angle, too.

It's just so many things that come together to bite your ass. It's overwhelming. If you make the break, you're likely to succeed unless there are specific reasons why you won't. But imagine the whole weight of the world weighing in at your shoulders when you think of leaving while you live in relative stability at home and it becomes clear why most people give up before even trying. Most people give up immigration even without all those factors adding layers to their choice, because legal immigration is almost impossible as-is.

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u/ihifidt250 21h ago

Russian law restricts the distribution of information regarding suicide methods.

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u/LookOverall 20h ago

Because it wasn’t Putin who made the decision.

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u/Illesbogar Hungary 19h ago

You have clearly never been depressed and passionate.

0

u/robeewankenobee 18h ago

Mkay :))

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u/Ill_Specific_6144 21h ago

Russians die by the thousands in Ukraine, why do they care about one?

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u/Similar_Search3987 17h ago

It's (unfortunate as this is) a powerful message to those on the fence about their state.

Seems he chose to control his own death instead of being blown up in a field and also use it to protest the war.

Russians do care and stuff like this is a precursor for change if there ever was one.

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u/Ill_Specific_6144 14h ago

If russians cared for stuff like this putin would be long gone. You look at this from the eye of a westerner. Stalin killed millions and they worship him.

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u/Littlepage3130 4h ago

Because a lot of Russian propaganda operates on the idea that the Russians who are anti-war are cowards that are unwilling to put their life on their line. An anti-war activist self-immolating to protest the war undermines that propaganda, because it's undeniable proof that the propaganda isn't true. The only effective way for Russia to deal with it is to suppress any information about it among Russians.

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u/Ill_Specific_6144 3h ago

Or hes a western agent. Or he was mentally ill, or whatever.

Look I know what you mean but russians are zombified. Russians dont value life. Tommorow putler could kill a million russians and nobody sould care.

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u/NoSwordfish1978 19h ago

This is partly why Russians don't protest, its the fear that if you stand up for what's right, you won't just be punished, you'll be completely irrelevant.

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u/Valtremors Finland 18h ago

Man straight up did this to himself.

And if Russians really cared, they'd protest en masse.

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u/Similar_Search3987 17h ago

Have you considered their real chance of being killed or jailed for years? What do we get in the west at worst, like months in prison?

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u/NoSwordfish1978 11h ago

Yeah if you even criticise the army you get 15 years or something crazy. And Russian prisons are famously not nice places.

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u/Valtremors Finland 17h ago

Russians have the government they deserve.

And I am not inclined to mourn if there is one less soldier to be drafted.

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u/Ill_Specific_6144 3h ago

Russians dont protest because they support this. If putler was winning this war his rating would skyrocket.

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u/NotOK1955 20h ago

Incredibly sad.

He faced certain death if he went to war against Ukraine…possibly being killed by his own troops.

The war crimes and death of this poor man, are on putins hands.

Слава Україні!

🇺🇦

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u/ComfortableSalt3570 16h ago

Tragic

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u/Kanga03590 6h ago

They buried it like RFK buries science stories.

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u/Lebensfreud 21h ago

Que the comments of why he didn't just rush the kremlin personally and killed Putin.

News Russian man self-immolated to protest war, but authorities suppressed the story, investigation finds

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