"Military mobilization, the buildup of armaments and the impending apocalypse". When the long winter comes, rhetoric in Moscow is becoming more and more alarming and extremely warlike, writes on Radio Free Europe blogger Brian Whitmore.

Consider the following examples:.

The management of schools in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk received instructions on how to operate in the conditions of wartime, martial law and mass military mobilization.

Last week at an official meeting in Sochi with contractors in the military and defense industry of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin instructed large corporations to increase their readiness to increase the output of military products.

At the same meeting, Putin announced the expansion of the financing of the weapons program by $ 325 billion until 2027.

In order not to lag behind, Patriarch Kirill, in turn, recently warned that the apocalypse "is already visible to the naked eye," and the world "slides into the abyss of the end of history".

It can be said that all this largely corresponds to the course and politics of Russia of our time.

Against the backdrop of bellicose statements coming from Moscow after the annexation of the Crimea in 2014, the invasion of the Donbass and the subsequent confrontation with the West, none of the episodes described above is particularly surprising if we consider them separately.

And if we consider all the facts in the light of the approaching presidential elections of 2018, to which Putin is also preparing, everything indicates that "Russia as a fortress" will become the central theme of his campaign.

The Putin regime does not want voters to think about the problem of reducing the standard of living and widespread corruption - he wants people to focus on the external enemy.

Therefore, despite the alarming rhetoric, the Kremlin is probably not really preparing for a new war.

To a large extent, his hands are bound by the conflicts that he has already begun.

The Kremlin is simply preparing a psychological attack against its own Russian citizens.

Source: uainfo.