The Russian opposition politician Maksim Kats highlighted comments by the reliably pro-Kremlin Army General and State Duma deputy Andrey Gurulev, who had admitted that there is an extremely low standard of living in Russia’s notoriously impoverished regions, including the Far East. The situation is even worse in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, Kats said.
Even in Mariupol, which is used by the Kremlin as a postcard for Russia’s supposed rebuilding of Donbas, entire blocks still lie in ruins, and the few houses constructed by the occupiers are poor quality with “cracks covering the walls only a year after the buildings were finished,” Kats said. People who lost their homes have not been compensated but have been invited to buy apartments in the new buildings, while in other destroyed cities, no housing is being built at all.
The absolute failure of the Russian state to manage the simplest elements of governance is a warning to those in the West who believe the Kremlin offers “liberation” to its Russian-speaking peoples. Rather, it consigns everyone of whatever mother tongue, pro-occupation or Ukrainian loyalist, to mismanagement and misery.
There have been reports about the deplorable state of the occupied territories since 2022, some of which have been confirmed in the Kremlin’s propaganda media. For example, Moskovskiy Komsomolets, a newspaper loyal to the authorities, reported in 2023 that the population of the “new regions” lacked full access to social benefits and were tired of the “legal chaos” that reigned there.
The reason for this failure lies not only with the all-encompassing corruption that dominates Vladimir Putin’s regime, but also in the choices of personnel to govern the occupied regions. Moscow has assigned officials from other regions to Donbas, where they try to use their appointments for career advancement.
Few try to engage seriously in regional development and dream instead of leaving as soon as possible to return to the internationally recognized parts of Russia.
They find “legal chaos and illiterate employees” in the occupied territories, which are characterized by constant military control and mortal risks due to shootings and “terrorist attacks”, the news website Vyorstka reported at the beginning of April. “No one seriously learns anything about the region or has any interest in building something there,” it said.
At the same time, it is practically impossible to create a regional elite in occupied Ukraine to take on the development of their native land. The Russian authorities doubt the loyalty of collaborators, and it is difficult to train new specialists due to the poor quality of higher education.
Last year, it was reported that 29 universities in the occupied territories had been declared Russian federal property, yet were offering diplomas that did not comply with Russia’s educational norms. There is no mandatory unified state examination for admission, and teaching is low quality because many of the best staff have refused to cooperate with the occupiers.
The high level of crime makes life even more intolerable in the captured regions. Offences against local residents in the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions have increased sharply, with a marked rise in attacks on women and girls by Russian soldiers and Chechen paramilitaries, particularly in Melitopol, Akimovka, and Kirillovka, where the notorious Akhmat battalion is based.
The apparent impunity of the occupying military when carrying out crimes against residents is aggravated by a shortage of law enforcement officers. It is a major problem across Russia as well as the occupied territories, and since 2021, vacancies in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Federal Penitentiary Service have more than doubled, Kremlin-controlled media reported.
Low-ranking police officers in Russia say their salaries are not comparable with the military, so it makes sense to quit and sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense.
Besides the crises caused by wartime devastation, hollowed-out education, and rising crime, it is clear money intended for public expenditure in the “new territories” will not be allocated either. What hasn’t already disappeared through corruption is unlikely to appear due to a decline in Moscow’s income caused by a tariff-induced slowdown in the world economy and a resulting fall in the price of oil.
Moscow also has to find resources for the problems in Russia’s own regions. Siberia has been hit by devastating hurricanes and fires, for example, and tens of thousands of residents of the Altai, Kuzbass, Khakassia, Novosibirsk, and Irkutsk regions left without electricity.
There are serious doubts the Kremlin has the resources and desire to assist the populace of even these established regions, let alone the Ukrainian territories they have occupied and destroyed.
Kseniya Kirillova is an analyst focused on Russian society, mentality, propaganda, and foreign policy. The author of numerous articles for CEPA and the Jamestown Foundation, she has also written for the Atlantic Council, Stratfor, and others.
Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions expressed on Europe’s Edge are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.
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