While the war has become a social elevator for some citizens of provincial Russia, other groups see their rights and freedoms increasingly diminished, becoming second-class citizens. Russia, whose system of government is already reminiscent of a kind of neo-feudalism in which each oligarch is accountable to the Russian president, Vladimir Putinis dividing its society into clearly differentiated classes by the number of rights they possess.
In the old Russian prison culture there is a caste called opúscheniywhich can be translated as “degraded.” They are prisoners marginalized to the lowest category of the prison hierarchy. Among other practices, such as forced passive sodomy, they live apart from the rest and lack any rights. Sometimes, they are marked with humiliating tattoos, even on their faces, to facilitate their identification.
foreign agents
Drawing a parallel, so-called “foreign agents” must be identified as such in any public communication. The law requires, for example, that each video previously include a poster lasting 15 seconds without interruption, occupying at least 20% of the screen and with font twice the size of the subsequent content.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the authorities declare a foreign agent any person or organization that receives support from abroad and participates in political activities, collects information about Russian military capabilities or disseminates certain content. It is a qualification prior to the war, but whose restrictions have been progressively tightened.
Those who appear on this list are prohibited from engaging in political activity, holding public office or working in companies considered strategic. Since September 1, they cannot hold educational positions or produce content for minors. Its image is constructed as that of a public threat, with labels that warn that its content is “for people over 18 years of age,” as if it were pornography.
The immigrants
Although Russia grants residence visas to those who “share traditional Russian spiritual and moral values,” according to its consular authorities, not all immigrants are accepted. In a country where rental ads ask for “Slavs only,” xenophobia toward people from the Caucasus and Central Asia has been incorporated into political discourse.
From this month, certain immigrants in Moscow must be permanently geolocatedlow risk of deportation. In addition to social discrimination, they suffer frequent police raids. In August, the Ministry of the Interior reported the arrest of 300 immigrants; In July there were 500.
Some regions have banned the employment of migrant labor in sectors such as education, healthcare, food delivery, passenger transportation and public order. The measure has gone against the needs of companies, which have been forced to make their services more expensive, as has happened with taxis.
Looking ahead to the last school year, children of immigrants faced a new barrier to integrating into Russian society. 87% could not be enrolled in school due to bureaucratic demands and language tests: seven-year-old children were left out of primary education for not speaking Russian.
According to the Federal Service for Supervision of Education and Science, only 2,964 of the 23,616 applicants managed to enroll.
And I could go further. A bill is currently being debated to prohibit the entry and residence in Russia of spouses and children of foreign workers (except Belarusians and highly qualified specialists). The promoters maintain that these families represent “a burden on the social infrastructure.” The chairman of the State Duma, Viacheslav Volodíndeclared on networks: “Those who come to Russia to work SHOULD NOT BRING THEIR FAMILIES TO OUR COUNTRY.”
The new elite
After the start of the war, Putin called for the formation of a “new social elite”: that of veterans, especially ex-combatants of the Ukrainian front. Most come from the poorest regions, where enlisting offered a salary well above average. But they also receive social benefits: they pay less taxes, have priority access to medical services and other advantages.
Thanks to programs like Time of Heroescan be trained as civil servants (almost 50,000 candidates took the April tests). More than 15,000 children of veterans entered public universities in 2024, many of them without having to take entrance exams or without passing them.
The Government seeks to reintegrate this group. According to recent figures announced by Putin, about 700,000 people are currently on the frontand could be “promoted to positions of political command.” As reported Daria Baibákovadirector of the Nochliózhka charity, which distributes food to the homeless in Moscow, more and more veterans are ending up on the streets, with war trauma and without sufficient support.