• Join Puck

    Directly Supporting Authors

    A new economic model in which writers are also partners in the business.

    Personalized Subscriptions

    Customize your settings to receive the newsletters you want from the authors you follow.

    Stay in the Know

    Connect directly with Puck talent through email and exclusive events.

  • What is puck? Newsletters Authors Podcasts Events Gift Puck Careers

The Putin Apostates Come Home

If the West was counting on sanctions to create enough economic pain for the Russian population to rise up, sweep Putin from power, and end the war, they have been wildly unsuccessful. In fact, many conscientious objectors who at first fled the country are wending their way back home.

Putin
Putin. Photo: Dennis Grombkowski/Getty Images
Julia Ioffe
June 21, 2022

Like so many other Muscovites, Katya learned about the Russian invasion of Ukraine from an early morning text. “The war has started,” a friend wrote to her at 5 a.m. on February 24. Katya, whose name I have changed to protect her identity, had a full body response. She began to shake and hyperventilate and thought, for some reason, that the bombs were about to start falling on her home in Moscow. Her husband calmed her down enough for her to go back to sleep, but in the morning, the reality struck her with renewed force.