The Deathonomics of Putin’s War. “Black widows” marrying soldiers to collect death benefits are symptomatic of society-wide rot.

The Deathonomics of Putin’s War



by Barch3

11 comments

  2. I don’t have much if any sympathy for the Russians but a 12 day lifespan is fucking insane.

  3. > You cannot fix this with laws or moral appeals; this is the systemic rot of a nation where the state itself has become a predator feeding on its own citizens’ deaths.

  4. As chat up lines go, “you’ll be rich when I die” isn’t too bad?

  5. >Russia’s entire periphery has been deliberately impoverished—and then offered a single path to survival, the commodification of death. Women marry soldiers to collect their death benefits because there are no alternative futures for either member of the couple, whether real or sham.

    Real russian culture right on display

  6. Death benefits are comparable to about ~30 years income in poor regions that are to be paid by the poor local government. Working age men are sent to die and their wife may get in few months what they would have otherwise earned in almost lifetime of working a normal position. But not very sustainable if local officials have to find enough money from their meager budget.

    By luring in some Africans or Indians they could just skip the death benefit part entirely.

  7. It’s emblematic of a broader problem in Russian culture: A complete lack of regard for human life.

  8. Russian ‘culture’ is truly disgusting, their collapse will be thrilling, and hopefully brutal. What a horrible society.

  10. >**marrying soldiers to collect death benefits are symptomatic of society-wide rot**

    Not nearly as symptomatic as how few of them will actually get any money, since their dead husbands will inevitably be classified as missing or deserted rather than killed in action.

    This has been true for the entire war and it’s not just the meat grinders in the ground forces. There was that submarine that Ukraine destroyed in dock in Sevastopol, and the Navy said there were no casualties because all of the sailors aboard had been AWOL. That was a couple of years ago iirc.

  11. Is anybody actually getting money? I thought no death benefits were being paid because the gov’t claims their soldiers are MIA’s or just not pay at all.

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