Moscow can be stunning in the fall, and its gardens are a storm of seasonal color under deep blue skies. The last big bang before the end of winter – but there is growing fear and tension behind it all.

Apart from the billboards commemorating the heroes of Russia’s “special military operation”, you never know that this is the capital of a country at war.

Life goes on. But under the guise of normality, there is an increasingly sinister trend. There are far fewer people outside, especially men of fighting age. Hundreds of thousands of Russians fled the country.

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Many of those left behind are reluctant to leave their homes, fearing they will be photographed by countless Moscow cameras that use facial recognition technology. Mobilization of Vladimir Putin Men were pushed into wheelchairs, old people and even the dead received summonses. No one is safe.

Muscovites are afraid to knock on the door to take their father, son or husband to training camps for a war they do not understand and yet have a convincing explanation.

They know things are not going well. Otherwise, why would their boss need hundreds of thousands more troops?

put it on He sold his own military operation as something distant that professional soldiers and contractors fought against. They are so deluded that they still think he had another shock this week.

Putin did something no other Russian president has done since then The Second World War declaration of martial law. He did this on land he had stolen from Ukraine, but also let a kind of “light martial law” spread to the rest of Russia.

It has now given Russian local authorities the power to control traffic, gatherings, communications and transport, and even the power to resettle people. Rights designed to be used only in times of war have been dusted off to give the government more control if it needs it.

Russians are tired of foreigners asking why they tolerated it. The protests were brutally suppressed. Police now routinely prevent people on the streets from checking their phones for subversive content. Russia is importing surveillance technology from China, which in the not-too-distant future could lead to neglect of the opposition, let alone revolution or regime change.

Muscovites know it can get worse. The removal of government for society and the economic impact of this war. The Russians survived the sanctions better than Western politicians expected, but they are suffering now. Prices are rising and many goods are missing. The specter of inflation and rationing hovers.

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The elderly remember the 70s and are afraid of the return of this era. But in Soviet times, there was at least one ideology that many believed in. This time, the Tsar appears with his hideous fantasies about Greater Russia and the ambitions and greed of the corrupt elders around him.

There is no end in sight because we no longer know what the goal is. Russia’s original war aims have failed. Did Putin replace them with another target he could accept? Or will it go on forever as Russia plunges into a constant winter of repression and economic collapse?