***The Telegraph’s James Kilner reports from Kazan, Russia:***
The mosh pit on the dancefloor of the underground nightclub in Kazan, central Russia, throbbed.
A crescendo of electronic music overlaid with rap was sending 80 or so partying young Russians into a joyous ecstasy. And then the release that they had all been waiting for, led by the band.
“Vladimir Putin, he’s such a great political leader! Vladimir Putin, he is such a great warrior!” they screamed at the top of their voices before bursting into laughter.
“Irony. It’s ironic,” explained a young partygoer later, with a wry smile. “We can’t go any further than that.”
A wall of [pro-war sentiment](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/russia-ukraine-war/) was expected in this city of wide boulevards lined with Tsarist-era buildings and a fortress that dominates the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka rivers.
So strong is Kazan’s “Z city” status that the Kremlin has chosen it as the site of a new factory to produce Shahed kamikaze drones under licence from Iran. The letter ‘Z’ has become a pro-war symbol in Russia.
It was easy enough to chat with people who supported Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, but there was also a strong undercurrent of unhappiness, disgust even, with the war, although these frustrations had to be hidden. Russia is by any measure a police state set up for eavesdropping and surveillance.
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***The Telegraph’s James Kilner reports from Kazan, Russia:***
The mosh pit on the dancefloor of the underground nightclub in Kazan, central Russia, throbbed.
A crescendo of electronic music overlaid with rap was sending 80 or so partying young Russians into a joyous ecstasy. And then the release that they had all been waiting for, led by the band.
“Vladimir Putin, he’s such a great political leader! Vladimir Putin, he is such a great warrior!” they screamed at the top of their voices before bursting into laughter.
“Irony. It’s ironic,” explained a young partygoer later, with a wry smile. “We can’t go any further than that.”
Kazan, 550 miles east of Moscow, had been described as a “[hardcore Z city](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/07/russias-z-could-become-next-swastika/)” by a source in St Petersburg before the Telegraph flew in to cover [Putin’s Brics economic forum](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/10/23/new-world-order-forming-putin-tells-summit-brics/) where he was entertaining African, South American and Asian leaders.
A wall of [pro-war sentiment](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/russia-ukraine-war/) was expected in this city of wide boulevards lined with Tsarist-era buildings and a fortress that dominates the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka rivers.
So strong is Kazan’s “Z city” status that the Kremlin has chosen it as the site of a new factory to produce Shahed kamikaze drones under licence from Iran. The letter ‘Z’ has become a pro-war symbol in Russia.
It was easy enough to chat with people who supported Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, but there was also a strong undercurrent of unhappiness, disgust even, with the war, although these frustrations had to be hidden. Russia is by any measure a police state set up for eavesdropping and surveillance.
**Read more:** [**https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/11/01/inside-vladimir-putin-wartime-russia/**](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/11/01/inside-vladimir-putin-wartime-russia/)
If you can post the paywall-free link, I’d be eternally grateful.
Paywalled
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