I think everyone knows that Vladimir Putin and the Russian government can be very suspicious at the best of times, but the new claims I’m going to talk about in this article are even more insane than usual and straight out of North Korea/1984 or something.

Featured Image VIA

The footage comes from a Putin rally held in Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium to celebrate eight years since the annexation of the Ukrainian province of Crimea into Russia itself.  Although there were a whole bunch of Russians with Z flags – a symbol that has come to denote support for the Russian war with Ukraine – another set of outspoken Russians have claimed that they were forced to attend the rally by their employers and schools.

Here’s the video:

«Запихнули в автобус и привезли». Завезенные на мероприятие «Крымская весна – вместе навсегда» студенты рассказали «Соте», зачем приехали в Лужники.

Ну, или не рассказали.

Видео: SOTA. pic.twitter.com/QFpm3R9GFf

— SOTA (@SotaVision) March 18, 2022

OK that doesn’t explain too much but it clearly shows that the people aren’t too enthused about the rally. Other students claim that they were given the day off to attend a concert at the stadium but had no idea that some parts of it would be used to show support for the war in Ukraine.

Other people were seen checking into the rally and then leaving immediately, as they clearly didn’t want to be there but were scared that if they weren’t shown to have attended then they would face a punishment. There are also claims that many of the attendees were bussed in from their jobs against their will.

Well, that really does sound like something from 1984 or a totalitarian dictatorship, but I suppose we shouldn’t really be surprised by that the way things have devolved in Russia over the past couple of years. Sounds pretty grim over there doesn’t it? I definitely wouldn’t want to be living over there right now.

For more of the same, check out these people that think Putin is dying from terminal cancer. Could it be true?