![]() ![]() Like hundreds of thousands of other Russians, Alina has joined dozens of government-run and -promoted online groups with names like “REAL Ukraine,” “Antiterror Z,” “Z for Victory,” “The Russian Spring,” and “Ztrength in Truth.” Whether holed up in her bedroom or posting from class, the back seat of a bus, or a bar while chatting with her friends, Alina’s thirst for the world of Russia’s war against Ukraine seems unquenchable.Īlina began by sharing posts from the war groups she had joined. Gone are the fripperies of consumerist life. 24, 2022, when Russia sent a massive invasion force into Ukraine, Alina’s VK page has become a different world. She is a big fan of Maisie Williams’s Game of Thrones character, whom Alina calls a “fierce” role model of modern womanhood.īut since Feb. She shows off photos of beach vacations in Egypt and shares videos about nail design, fashion, movies, and TV. She has uploaded all the trappings of ordinary teenage life to her page on VK, Russia’s version of Facebook. She dreams of moving to Moscow to work in the capital’s high-tech industry.Īlina, like most young people in Russia, is addicted to her smartphone. They down fearsome quantities of alcohol in local bars. ![]() ![]() She hangs out with her boyfriend, Sergey, and goes to the local cinema to watch the latest Hollywood blockbusters, now pirated to circumvent Western sanctions. When she’s not studying for her degree in graphic design, she does all the things anyone else of her age might. Nineteen-year-old Alina lives in Nizhny Tagil, a blighted industrial city in Russia’s Ural region. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |