In today’s #vatnik soup I’ll discuss the “decadent West” and how the USSR and Russian policies has affected their culture and society. One of the most persistent narratives that the Kremlin has touted is the collapse of Western civilization. 1/12

Based on their propaganda, this is due to straying from “traditional values” and promotion of gender equality, human rights and multiculturalism. This is by no means a new thing - “the decaying west” was already portrayed in Russia in the 19th century. 2/12

This trope evokes weakly defined concepts such as “tradition”, “family values” and “spirituality”. Russia considers itself as a counterweight to Western decadence and this is one of their key narratives in disinformation campaigns conducted in the West. 3/12

This has led to some outlandish claims, such as the concept of “father” and “mother” have been cancelled and they’re replaced with “parent 1 and 2”, and that Western children learn at school that “Jesus was bisexual”. 4/12

But if you look at the statistics, 🇷🇺 is by no means a last bastion of traditional values.Their legislation & cultural brainwashing has caused multiple negative societal byproducts. In ’22, 🇷🇺 had the highest divorce rate in the world with annually 3, 9 divorces per 1000 people.5/12

Alcohol use in Russia has declined in the two decades, but in 2018 Russia still had the highest rate of alcohol-deaths in the world. I’m sure that the Russo-Ukraine War isn’t going to help this situation a lot (unless Russia runs out of alcohol due to the sanctions). 6/12

And it’s not just alcohol: Russia has suffered from widespread injection drug use with 2% of the population using IV drugs. In 2020, over 7000 people died from illicit drugs. 7/12

This epidemic has led to another negative phenomenon: HIV/AIDS is a huge problem in Russia.
According to 2019 data, Russia has 1, 06 million people with HIV/AIDS and in 2018, 37 000 people died from AIDS. 8/12

Human trafficking is a huge problem in Russia, and they are placed in the worst tier (Tier 3) in the Trafficking in Persons Report ranking system. For example in 2007, an incident of forced prostitution and mass murder was uncovered in Nizhny Tagil. 8/11

A gang abducted a group of girls and forced them into prostitution, killing those who refused. A mass grave with up to 30 bodies was later discovered in the area. 10/12

Russia leads the developed world with the worst sanitation and sewer record. 23% live without a centralized sewage system and 6% lacks a sewage system altogether. In rural Russia, approx. two-thirds have no access to indoor toilets. 11/12

As with everything in Russia, there is a large contrast between the major cities and rural areas.

As we can see from these examples, Russia is far away from the traditional utopia they claim to be. Even their “spirituality” is just another front for criminal activity. 12/12