Russia-Ukraine War

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       What You Can Still Complain About in Russia: A Cat Thrown From a Train

       The death of a pet during a train journey has given Russians a safe space to speak out and connect, and allowed the Kremlin to shift attention from wartime gloom.

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       Russian Railways train cars in Moscow. After the death of Twix, a cat who was accidentally thrown from a train, the railroad opened an internal investigation. Credit...Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

       By Anatoly Kurmanaev

       Feb. 2, 2024Updated 5:30 a.m. ET

       The tragedy gripped Russia for days. Federal lawmakers convened a special committee and an investigation was launched, as hundreds of volunteers searched for the victim in subzero temperatures, and state news media ran live updates on the fallout.

       Eventually, the victim — Twix the cat — was found dead.

       A national outcry over the demise of a pet who was mistakenly thrown from a long-distance train by an attendant has highlighted both the limits of and the demand for an emotional outlet in wartime Russia.

       A national poll found that about two out of three Russians were familiar with Twix, a very high proportion in a country where people increasingly tune out negative news, like the war in Ukraine, according to Denis Volkov, director of the country’s largest independent pollster, the Levada Center, which conducted the survey.

       A combination of propaganda, a crackdown on dissent and public fatigue with the inconclusive war has turned internet curiosities into a focus of national attention for days, even weeks. Last month, a video of a Russian influencer tossing his 2-month-old baby in a snowbank in an apparent stunt received thousands of comments, the majority of them negative, and led to a criminal investigation.

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       Part catharsis, part political theater, events like Twix’s death are providing Russians with rare opportunities to vent and bond with like-minded people without running afoul of the police or censors.

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       Twix the cat. Credit...Edgar Gaifullin

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       Anatoly Kurmanaev covers Russia and its transformation following the invasion of Ukraine. More about Anatoly Kurmanaev

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