Thursday, the Russian sky was crossed by many private jets leaving Moscow in the direction of Dubai. A surprising phenomenon that Newsweek tried to decipher.
Some alarmist Internet users first speculated that a leak would announce an imminent nuclear attack. However, another lead would like it to be a reaction at Putin’s speech on Wednesday on Russian television. “Self-purification of Russian society”, is the exact formula that the head of the Kremlin used in reference to the supposed westernization of part of his population.
As if the reference to “purges» of Stalin was not clear enough, the Russian President added that “Western society was going to bet on an alleged fifth column, traitors to their country”, to destroy Russia. This vocabulary refers directly to the existence of an enemy within, who would act against the interests of the country. Anne Applebaum, writer for The Atlantic, writes on her Twitter account about this: “He wants that [les Russes] be haunted by ancestral memories, remember the stories of their grandparents and be petrified with fear.”
Putin’s call for a “self-purification” of Russian society can have only one intention: To remind Russians of Stalin and his “purges.” He wants them to be haunted by dark, ancestral memories, to remember their grandparents’ stories and to be petrified with fear.
—Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) March 17, 2022
Vladimir Putin added as a threat and before concluding: “Any people, and especially the Russian people, are able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors, and spit the latter out like a midge that accidentally landed in their mouths.”
“Cleansing”; “scum”; “midges”; “traitors”: Putin’s words are increasingly disturbing and astonish the whole world. Excerpt from his speech broadcast yesterday on Russian television. pic.twitter.com/eWqH8MkL9a
—Loopsider (@Loopsidernews) March 17, 2022
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Analyst Oliver Alexander, who relayed the departures of private jets on his Twitter account, said there was no way for the moment to know who was really inside these planes. But the hypothesis of oligarchs fearing for their safety is also shared by Eliot Higgins, founder of the investigation group Bellingcat. He joked the situation with this comment: “The Rats Abandoning Ship.”
A large exodus of private jets out of Moscow towards Dubai this morning too. pic.twitter.com/pJzXPtyQOu
— Oliver Alexander (@OAlexanderDK) March 17, 2022
If doubts persist on the role of oligarchs in this aerial activity, several signs show that the tension is mounting for these ultra-rich whose loyalty Putin calls into question. Tuesday, Newsweek reported how some of them begin to hide their wealth to escape Western sanctions. And for good reason: yachts worth millions of dollars were seized in Europe.
Another aerial activity, which does not concern private jets, challenges certain observers like Olivier Alexander. The latter indicates “significant activity over the Russian Federation from Moscow to the northern Ural Mountains and into Siberia”.
www.slate.fr
