"This is Outrageous": Kremlin Found Two New Stupid Ways to Steal Money from People - The Russian Dude

[TexasTowelie]

Russia is entering a new, dangerous phase of economic collapse as the Kremlin destroys the very social contract that kept the country stable for two decades. The silent agreement between the government and ordinary citizens—“you don’t bother us, we don’t bother you”—has finally shattered under the weight of the Ukraine war. With budget deficits exploding and wartime costs spiraling, Putin has launched a desperate hunt for cash, tearing apart the informal economy, suffocating self-employed workers, and unleashing absurd new taxes that crush families already struggling to survive.

The old equilibrium that allowed people to make side income without scrutiny is gone. Instead, the Kremlin is raiding every corner of society: weaponizing import fees, slapping million-ruble charges on used cars, turning simple Kia imports into luxury-car expenses, and killing the only workaround Russians had after Western manufacturers left. As the war drains the state budget, Putin is targeting freelancers, tutors, drivers, hairdressers, online sellers—people who survived by working independently and paying taxes voluntarily. Now, the government wants them squeezed out, taxed harder, and stripped of the freedoms that kept the economy functioning during past crises.

For the first time in modern Russian history, the government is not merely mishandling a recession—it is intentionally making it worse. By crushing small business, suffocating self-employment, sabotaging import ecosystems, and hunting for “invisible money” that doesn’t exist, Putin is destroying the last mechanisms that kept Russia afloat. This is not a reform, not a strategy, not a policy shift. It is a frantic cash grab to fund a war Russia cannot afford and cannot win. As the Kremlin cannibalizes its own people, one truth becomes unavoidable: Putin doesn’t need Russia to prosper. He only needs Putin not to lose.