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The Sinister Reason Putin Delayed His Mobilization Speech by 11 Hours

Examples of chaotic attempts from young Russians’to escape Ukraine’s death fields.

Levi Borba
6 min readSep 21, 2022
Border between Finland and Russia by the time this article is written.
The border between Finland and Russia by the time this article is written. Since Putin’s order on September 21, 2202, a massive flow of cars has begun to leave Russia and enter Finland. Source: Author’s contacts.

Ps: Check my channel, The Expat.

20.09.2022, 19:00

I was sipping glasses of tonic gin while enjoying my holidays in Cyprus, my favorite beach destination in Europe (followed closely by Malta). A place that this year specifically got much cheaper due to the absence of Russian tourists. It was my last day before returning to Poland.

Then suddenly, one of my contacts informed me that Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the giant Russian media conglomerate RT, had anticipated a general address from Vladimir Putin to the Russian nation. The message I received was:

“Putin’s address to Russia is expected around 20:00, according to federal media journalists. Shoigu will most likely follow right behind him. “

Nearly all journalists, both inside and outside of Russia, thought it would be an announcement to get Russian reserves mobilized. This would be a step very close to declaring war.

The speech should start at any moment. But instead of constantly checking my phone for updates, I decided to just enjoy my holidays.

20.09.2022, 22:00

The same contact informed me that the speech was already 2 hours late, and many journalists in Russia started to get nervous since they were on standby for some breaking news. I just went to sleep before travelling to Warsaw the next morning.

21.09.2022, 06:30

While waiting for my flight, I check my contacts and receive two interesting pieces of information.

1st — Putin’s speech to the nation STILL didn’t happened.

2nd — His delayed speech appears to have set Moscow ablaze with anxiety. Airline tickets soared even though no mobilization was announced. For a hypothetical family of three (let’s say a mom, a dad, and an adult son), a flight from Moscow to Istanbul at that moment approached $3200. That is an increase of 287% over normal prices (the same thing usually costs $825)!

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