Putin spends Christmas in isolation as anger grows over the Himars barracks attack

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Samara is a city of 1.2 million people located on the banks of the Volga River towards the border with Kazakhstan.

During the Soviet era, it was closed to outsiders because of the missile development program. It was also the secret home of British KGB double agents Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean after they escaped to the Soviet Union in 1951.

Throughout the week in central Samara, thousands of people lined up to lay red carnations for the dead at a Soviet military memorial. Some women gave fiery speeches, vowing revenge, but most people walked past as if they were resigned.

The destruction of the infantry unit has scared people off and on Russia’s VK social media, they are venting their frustration.

“What about those who still don’t know about their loved ones?” “We cannot find our loved ones,” said a woman named Irina, who wrote on the VK page of the district governor. “Tell me how and how long to wait?”

The Kremlin’s mobilization of 320,000 men in September and October, Russia’s first since 1941, brought the realities of Putin’s first “special military operation” to millions of Russians living in cities like Samara.

Putin and his propagandists insisted that the invasion of Ukraine was necessary to halt NATO expansion and that it would be over in a few days or weeks at most.

But his mobilization order weakened the Russians’ confidence in the Kremlin. They are suddenly drawn into Mr. Putin’s war.

“People are tired,” said Mr. Postynik, editor of the Samara newspaper. “The mobilization affected them greatly. But they are still afraid.”

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