(NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA) – Russian authorities staged an elaborate public relations exercise in Novosibirsk ahead of a visit by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, masking the country’s growing economic difficulties behind a facade of freshly painted buildings and repaved streets.
The visit followed what analysts describe as a modern “Potemkin village” strategy, a practice dating back to the late 1700s under Empress Catherine the Great. Local officials hurriedly repaved streets, patched up facades and spruced up green spaces, but only along the few routes where the Kremlin leadership would pass in its motorcade.
The spectacle extended to crowd management. Government employees and carefully selected extras were positioned along the motorcade’s route in advance, preventing ordinary citizens from approaching the dictator. Putin stopped his vehicle only near a group of children, surrounded by numerous bodyguards.
Conspiracy theories suggesting the appearance may have involved a body double have circulated, with some observers noting the dictator maintains several doppelgangers for situations deemed uncomfortable for the real Putin.
The most striking symbol of the manufactured reality was a Turbo oil petrol station where the price display had been switched off. Dark petrol stations have become a major symbol of this summer’s acute fuel crisis, caused partly by repeated attacks on Russian refineries. Local authorities ordered price displays turned off to prevent rapidly soaring petrol prices from spoiling the dictator’s image.
Putin’s trip starkly exposed the contrast between the fabricated glow of Kremlin propaganda and the real gloom into which Russia is sinking. While the dictator posed for cameras, feigning affection for children, the unlit petrol station signs and freshly painted facades underscored the absurdity of the system.
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