Category: MIL-OSI

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Miranda Sheild Johansson, Senior Research Fellow in Social Anthropology, UCL

For much of the 20th century, Sweden enjoyed a justifiable reputation as one of Europe’s most egalitarian countries. Yet over the past two decades, it has transformed into what journalist and author Andreas Cervenka calls a “paradise for the super-rich”.

Today, Sweden has one of the world’s highest ratios of dollar billionaires, and is home to numerous “unicorn” startup companies worth at least US$1 billion (£742 million), including the payment platform Klarna and audio streaming service Spotify.

The abolition of the wealth tax (förmögenhetsskatten) 20 years ago is part of this story – along with, in the same year, the introduction of generous tax deductions for housework and home improvement projects. Two decades on, the number of Swedish homes that employ cleaners is one marker of it being an increasingly two-tier country.

As part of my anthropological research into the social relationships that different tax systems produce, I have been working with pensioners in the southern suburbs of Sweden’s capital, Stockholm, to learn how they feel about the decreasing levels of taxation in their later lives.

This trend has been coupled with a gradual shrinking of the welfare state. Many of my interviewees regret that Sweden no longer has a collective project to build a more cohesive society.

“Us pensioners can see the destruction of what we built, what was started when we were small children,” Kjerstin, 74, explained. “I was born after the end of the war and built this society through my life, together with my fellow citizens. [But] with taxes being lowered and the taking away of our social security … we’re not building anything together now.”

Sweden’s gini coefficient, the most common way to measure inequality, has reached 0.3 in recent years (with 0 reflecting total equality and 1 total inequality), up from around 0.2 in the 1980s. The EU as a whole is at 0.29. “There are now 42 billionaires in Sweden – it’s gone up a lot,” Bengt, 70, told me. “Where did they come from? This didn’t used to be a country where people could easily become this rich.”

But like other pensioners I met, Bengt acknowledged his peer group’s role in this shift. “I belong to a generation that remembers how we built Sweden to become a welfare state, but so much has changed. The thing is, we didn’t protest this. We didn’t realise we were becoming this country of rich people.”

Opposite of the American dream

Wealth taxation was introduced in Sweden in 1911, with the amount due based initially on a combination of wealth and income. Around the same time, some of the first moves towards the Swedish welfare state were made – notably, the introduction of the state pension in 1913.

The term used to describe this, folkemmet (“the people’s home”), denoted comfort and security for all in equal measure. It was arguably the ideological opposite of the American dream – its aims not exceptionalism but reasonable living standards and universal services.

After the second world war, the wealth tax – now separated from income – was raised again in several steps up to a historical high of a 4% marginal rate for wealthy individuals in the 1980s, although actual tax burden is is less clear due to complex exemption rules. But total revenues generated from the tax were still relatively low. As a share of Sweden’s annual GDP, it never exceeded 0.4% in the postwar period.

By the end of the 1980s, the political winds were starting to change in Sweden, in line with the shift to privatisation of public services and deregulation of financial markets in several European countries, including the UK under Margaret Thatcher, and the US.

One recurrent criticism of Sweden’s wealth tax was that it was regressive, taxing middle-class wealth (mainly housing and financial assets) while exempting the wealthiest people who owned large firms or held high-up positions in listed companies. Another criticism was that the wealth tax drove tax avoidance, especially in the form of capital flight to offshore tax havens.

While a wealth tax might appear to signal their country’s commitment to socioeconomic equality, my interviewees said it wasn’t something they really thought about much until it was abolished in 2006 by Sweden’s then-rightwing government, following the axing of inheritance tax a year earlier by the previous social democratic government.

“When the wealth tax was abolished,” Marianne, 77, told me, “I wasn’t thinking about millionaires being given a handout, because … we didn’t have lots of rich aristocrats who owned everything. Abolishing the wealth and inheritance tax seemed like a practical thing, not so political.”

Marianne and other pensioners I talked to all told a story of the welfare state having been built through communal effort, as opposed to it being a Robin Hood project – of taking from the rich to give to the poor. This notion of the Swedish welfare state as having been built by equals, by an initial largely rural and poor population, arguably distracted these pensioners from questions of wealth accumulation.

While Sweden still taxes property and various forms of capital income, in hindsight, many of my elderly interviewees now regard the abolition of the wealth tax “on their watch” as a crucial step in reshaping Swedish society away from a social democracy welfare state towards something new – a place of billionaires and increased social disintegration.

“I think about my children, my two daughters who are working and have young families,” Jan, 72, told me. “As children, they were provided for by the welfare state, they went to good schools and had access to football and drama class and the dentist – but now I worry that society is going to get worse for them.”

As with others I spoke to, Jan showed regret at his own role in this change. “I now think that is partly my fault,” he said. “We got lazy and complacent, thought the Swedish welfare state was secure, didn’t worry about abolishing the wealth tax, didn’t think it was going to change anything … but I think it has.”

‘A society that is more humane’

My research suggests the impacts of wealth taxes, or absence of them, are not only about fiscal revenue streams and wealth redistribution. They have wider social ramifications, and can be foundational to people’s vision of society.

Only three European countries currently levy a whole wealth tax: Norway, Spain and Switzerland. In addition, France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands impose wealth taxes on selected assets, but not on an person’s overall wealth.

In Sweden at least, the question today isn’t just whether wealth taxes work or not, but about what kind of society they project – one of folkhemmet, or a paradise for the rich.

“Tax was just natural [when] I grew up in the 1950s,” Kjerstin recalled. “I remember thinking when I was in second grade, that I will always be taken care of, that I didn’t ever have to worry.”

Reflecting on how different living in Sweden feels today, she said: “Now people don’t want to pay tax – sometimes even I don’t want to pay tax. Everyone is thinking about what they get back and how to get rich, instead of about building something together.”

“I don’t think you can say: ‘I pay this much in taxes and therefore I should get the same back.’ Instead, you should pay attention to the fact that you live in a society that is more humane, where everyone knows from second grade they’ll be taken care of.”

Names of research participants have been changed.

Miranda Sheild Johansson receives funding from UK Research And Innovation.

– ref. ‘We got lazy and complacent’: Swedish pensioners explain how abolishing the wealth tax changed their country – https://theconversation.com/we-got-lazy-and-complacent-swedish-pensioners-explain-how-abolishing-the-wealth-tax-changed-their-country-272041

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Amy Wilcockson, Research Fellow, English Literature, Queen Mary University of London

Last year marked 250 years since the birth of the English novelist Jane Austen. The Conversation celebrated this important literary milestone with a series of articles and a dedicated podcast, Jane Austen’s Paper Trail. This special year saw a variety of high-profile celebratory events across the country, from regency balls and film screenings, to special tours and literary talks.

But literary anniversaries are not just limited to famous and well-loved authors, however significant. Many dates pass us by unmarked, despite the fact that we are in the midst of a golden era of key dates of literary significance.

The 2020s has been a decade of major Romantic-period milestones, including the bicentenaries of the deaths of the poets John Keats (2021), Percy Bysshe Shelley (2022), and Byron (2024). Last year’s Austen anniversary was particularly notable because the writer was so widely and enthusiastically celebrated.

Yet it also was the centenary year of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s jazz-age classic The Great Gatsby, alongside Virginia Woolf’s modernist favourite Mrs Dalloway. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love all turned 80, while children’s classic The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis celebrated its 75th birthday.

Celebrating in 2026

In 2026 there is another slew of big anniversaries, marking the tercentenary of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, and 200 years since the ever-relevant Mary Shelley’s The Last Man (her 1826 novel about the near extinction of humanity after a global plague) was first released.

A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh first indulged in his favourite “hunny” in 1926, and it was the start of Agatha Christie’s reign as queen of crime, as the immensely popular The Murder of Roger Ackroyd captured the public imagination.

Fifty years later her last novel, Sleeping Murder, was published posthumously, after her death on January 12 1976. Special re-issues of Christie’s books, new audiobook recordings, lectures, conferences, Netflix adaptations, and even a major British Library exhibition have been organised to celebrate some of these momentous literary milestones.

Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire, which reshaped the genre with a more complex, nuanced portrayal of the archetypal character, also celebrates 50 years since its 1976 publication.

But why do we celebrate literary anniversaries? Why do museums, academics and the public rush to commemorate our favourite authors? And why do some authors receive more celebration than others?

First, literary anniversaries are significant as they create a shared sense of heritage and a feeling of unity within communities and cultures. As Shakespeare scholars Monika Smialkowska and Edmund G.C. King observed when considering the Bard’s many anniversary celebrations: “Each event has also been an occasion for the community commemorating him to celebrate itself.”

In 2016, when British and global audiences commemorated the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, gala concerts, special coins and exhibitions were the tip of the iceberg. Shakespeare represents to many the pinnacle of British culture and many believe his plays are vital as they allow us to examine ourselves and our place in the world.

General historical events don’t seem to capture the public imagination in the same way. And of course, major authors like Shakespeare and Austen become universal. They are not just a symbol of British culture, their fame and embodiment of “Britishness” have gone global. Shakespeare has been recognised by and claimed as a part of American, European, African and wider global contexts.

For instance, the Jane Austen Society of Aotearoa New Zealand celebrated its tenth anniversary last year. Marking anniversaries allow us to build connections not just with the time period or world that the author has built, but with fellow enthusiasts through shared interests in particular genres, texts and authors. We celebrate not just the writers, but our own personal, national and global networks and cultures too.

Nostalgia and literary tourism

Literary anniversaries are also a prime example of nostalgia – of thinking that a place, event or period from the past is preferable to the present. Rituals such as anniversary celebrations are the physical embodiment of this feeling.

This is why enthusiasts dress up in the costumes of the Regency period or in military attire – to transport themselves back to a less complex time, perhaps. By reading an author’s books, visiting their house, and seeing the quills and pens with which they wrote, visitors are similarly invited to step back into the past and into the writer’s world.

It is no surprise then that literary museums put on huge events to mark particularly important author milestones. Literary tourism is growing, with Travel Weekly noting that Austen tourism in particular is – obviously – popular at the moment.

While final visitor figures have not yet been released, a spokesperson for the Jane Austen’s House museum stated that they expected to have surpassed their usual annual 40,000 visitors in 2025.

These anniversaries are of course a global draw, with entire marketing campaigns built around significant dates. For example, 2017 was not only coined by Visit Britain as a Year of Literary Heroes, but an interactive Magical Britain campaign and map were also launched to celebrate 20 years since the the first Harry Potter book.

Anniversaries of popular books and authors boost the local and national economy as visitors flood to visit locations from the author’s writings, as well as their birthplaces, homes and graves.

But why do some authors stick in the public imagination more than others? Author and academic H.J. Jackson notes in her book on Romantic reputations that recognition usually begins with a collected edition of the author’s work, before interest develops into biographies, translations and adaptations. The texts become taught in schools, societies are named in the author’s honour, and then finally anniversary celebrations commence to celebrate their great achievements.

According to Jackson, authors need to win over different audiences to be successful and gain worldwide renown. Given their solid and wide-reaching appeal, I have little doubt we will still be celebrating Keats, Austen, Orwell and Christie in a hundred years’ time.

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Amy Wilcockson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Why we love literary anniversaries – https://theconversation.com/why-we-love-literary-anniversaries-273375

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Adrian Palmer, Senior Lecturer, Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London

The return of humans to the British Isles after the end of the last ice sheet, which covered much of the northern hemisphere, happened around 15,200 years ago – nearly 500 years earlier than previous estimates.

This movement of people coincided with a sharp rise in summer temperatures in southern Britain, research by our group shows.

These environmental conditions allowed humans to migrate back up into Britain – then still connected to the European mainland. They were hunting herds of reindeer and horses, which were migrating northwards into ecosystems that supported their preferred food for grazing.

After the end of the last ice age, the climate in north-west Europe shifted from cold to warm conditions on at least two occasions, with changes in temperature thought to have occurred over decades.

Our latest research addresses the first of these transitions in the Late Upper Palaeolithic period (14,000 to 11,000 years ago). In areas such as north-west Europe, including where the British Isles are today, humans successively abandoned and then returned to areas at the abrupt transitions between cold and warm periods.

Broadly, evidence of humans from fossil records showed them migrating to where the environmental conditions supported their survival.

Reasons for repopulation

The repopulation of the British Isles after the last ice age is an excellent period to explore the relationships between climate and environment, and the reappearance of humans in this region.

In previous studies, the evidence has been somewhat difficult to read due to uncertainty of the dating methods and incomplete records of environmental and climate conditions. The traditional view had been that the north-west European climate warmed from ice-age temperatures around 14,700 years ago, and humans reoccupied Britain at that time.

However, revised preparation techniques in the early 2000s for the dating of human remains and associated artefacts showed the earliest appearance of humans occurred prior to the warming of 14,700 years ago.

This finding was difficult to understand, as it coincided with what were then considered cold glacial climates that would have been unlikely to support the resources people needed to survive in Britain.

Summer climate record from Llangorse Lake, Wales

Our study used new calibrations of radiocarbon ages that confirmed the age of those human remains to between 15,200 and 15,000 years ago. So, if humans really were present in the British Isles, could they have survived in cold climates – or was our picture of past environments at this time incorrect?

Clearer insight came from Llangorse Lake (Lake Syffadan) in south Wales, where the lake sediments spanning the last 19,000 years record the abrupt climate change in detail. In addition, the lake’s location lies close to the cave in the Wye Valley where the earliest British evidence for human remains after the ice age were found.

By extracting fossil pollen, chironomids (non-biting midges) and chemical analysis of the lake sediments, an unexpected picture of the climate emerged – one that showed previous climate reconstructions for the region were incorrect.

The chironomids were used to reconstruct summer temperature, and this showed the climate warmed in a different pattern than has been identified in other parts of north-west Europe and Greenland. An abrupt temperature shift from 5–7°C to 10–14°C occurred at 15,200 years in Britain – 500 years earlier than previous evidence had suggested.

Just prior to this climate warming, the presence of human prey, such as reindeer and horses, is more consistently detected in southern Britain around 15,500 years ago. These animals were exploiting the newly available grazing grounds, with people tracking the herds northwards and enduring the moderately warmer summer climatic conditions.

Examining archaeological records along with environmental and climatic archives allows more precise reconstructions of when humans were able to repopulate previously inhospitable regions. This is helped by re-evaluating old radiocarbon dates of human evidence in the landscape, and by generating more precise environmental records from the time – including more precise timings of the transitions from cold to warm periods.

This provided us with a fuller picture of human responses to changes in temperature (and their impact on the environment) in the Late Upper Palaeolithic period. Human survival was the driver of these movements, and following prey into new areas was important. But only a relatively small change in summer temperatures was required to enable this migration.

Our research provides better understanding of human behaviour and resilience to climate change after the last ice age around 15,000 years ago. But understanding these environmental triggers from the past helps create new perspectives on human responses to them even now.

These basic factors have not gone away. The response observed in this study might provide clues on future human behaviour as our polar regions warm and glaciers melt, showing how the potential for human migration could be increased.

Adrian Palmer receives funding from Natural Environment Research Council. He is affiliated with Royal Holloway, University of London and Quaternary Research Association.

– ref. Humans returned to British Isles earlier than previously thought at the end of the last ice age – https://theconversation.com/humans-returned-to-british-isles-earlier-than-previously-thought-at-the-end-of-the-last-ice-age-271242

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Guy Guppy, Lecturer in Performance Nutrition and Exercise Physiology, Kingston University

When Matt Damon recently credited his weight loss to going gluten-free, it reignited a familiar debate about this divisive dietary approach. But while The Odyssey star’s claims have sparked discussion, the science behind weight loss tells a far more nuanced story than simply cutting out a single protein.

Gluten is a naturally occurring protein found in grains such as wheat, barley and rye, which means it’s commonly consumed in everyday foods like bread, pasta and cereal. For most people, gluten doesn’t cause any health problems.

But for those with coeliac disease – which affects about 1% of people – avoiding it is essential. This autoimmune condition triggers an immune response to gluten, damaging the small intestine’s lining, impairing nutrient absorption.

Then there’s gluten intolerance, or non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, a condition associated with symptoms like bloating and reflux. People with this condition also commonly experience problems beyond the digestive system, including headaches and skin rashes.

Despite growing numbers of people reporting such symptoms, gluten intolerance remains hotly debated in terms of its causes and management. Currently, the only recommended approach is to adopt a gluten-free diet.

For everyone else – those without coeliac disease or gluten intolerance – avoiding gluten-rich foods may be unnecessary and potentially problematic.

Foods high in gluten, such as bread, pasta and cereal, don’t just provide carbohydrates, they’re also excellent sources of fibre and B vitamins.

Removing these foods may inadvertently contribute towards nutrient deficiencies. Yet the market for gluten-free products continues to surge, with projections suggesting it will reach US$13.7 billion (£10.2 billion) by 2030.

Given that Damon didn’t disclose any medical condition when discussing his weight loss goals, the likely explanation for his results lies in his overall diet and behaviour rather than gluten itself. Research published in Nutrients found no significant differences between gluten-free and gluten-rich diets in body fat or body weight among healthy adults.

Mechanics, not magic

The weight loss many people experience on gluten-free diets often comes down to mechanics rather than magic. Because gluten is in many energy-dense, carbohydrate-based foods, people eliminating it typically cut out items like pizza, fast food and pasta.

This carbohydrate restriction leads to a reduction in glycogen – the stored form of carbohydrate in the human body. When glycogen is stored, water is stored alongside it.

So when glycogen levels drop, water weight follows, creating the illusion of rapid fat loss. This phenomenon explains why people often see dramatic results in the first week or two of any new diet or exercise programme.

Beyond reduced carbohydrate intake, people following gluten-free diets often shift towards consuming more naturally gluten-free whole foods. This dietary restructuring often results in fewer calories being consumed overall.

A small preliminary study, published in Frontiers of Sports and Active Living, found that adhering to a gluten-free diet for six weeks led to significant reductions in body weight compared to a control diet. But these changes were probably the result of a calorie deficit and fluid loss, rather than any metabolic advantage from removing gluten.

There’s another factor at play. Wheat-based carbohydrates contain fermentable sugars called fructans, which are broken down by bacteria in the large intestine. This fermentation produces gas that can cause bloating, pain and changes in bowel movements. When these foods are removed, symptoms subside and the stomach can appear flatter – an aesthetic change that people may mistake for fat loss.

Gluten may have health benefits

Adopting a gluten-free diet that isn’t medically necessary could actually increase health risks. A large study published in the BMJ found an association between higher gluten intake and reduced heart disease risk.

Similarly, research has revealed a link between low gluten intake and increased type 2 diabetes risk.

The culprit behind these concerning links may well be the gluten-free products lining supermarket shelves. When gluten is removed from a product, it changes the texture and palatability of the food. To compensate, manufacturers add other ingredients to improve taste and consistency.

The result? Gluten-free products have been shown to contain significantly less protein, higher saturated fat, lower fibre and higher sugar than their conventional counterparts. Over time, this nutritional profile may lead to poor diets and hence poor health.

So while people may believe that going gluten-free causes weight loss, the reality is usually different. Subtle changes in diet structure and composition, alongside behavioural modifications, are typically the real reason.

Guy Guppy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Can you really lose weight by cutting gluten from your diet, as Matt Damon claims? – https://theconversation.com/can-you-really-lose-weight-by-cutting-gluten-from-your-diet-as-matt-damon-claims-273392

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Santa Kravcenko, Lecturer in Management, University of Lancashire

“Please tell me where to go? A 14-year-old teenager has been possessed by a demon … we tried healers, but they couldn’t help … has anyone encountered this? Moscow region.” This is one of many similar pleas that have been circulating in Russia’s online communities in recent years.

According to reports in Russian media outlets such as Gazeta.ru, thousands of people in Russia are actively discussing exorcisms on social media. This is a spiritual ritual performed by a handful of Russian priests to expel spirits or demons from a person who is believed to be possessed.

Some people are travelling to well-known “exorcism destinations” such as Oryol Oblast about 400km south of Moscow. A priest there called Father Igor, the official exorcist of the local diocese, performs a ritual called otchitka. The ritual involves the priest reciting a set of prayers to help those deemed to be under the influence of spirits.

Other people are turning to the informal “exorcism economy”, which is offered by local mediums. Some have reported paying between 10,000 rubles (£98) and 20,000 rubles (£196) just for an initial consultation to determine whether they are truly possessed. Russia’s Orthodox Church warns that exorcism attempts should be left to members of the clergy.

Exorcism is embedded in the Orthodox tradition, with exorcism prayers first brought into Russian religious practice in the 17th century by Archbishop Peter Mogila. However, exorcisms remained rare until the late Soviet period.

The most influential modern exorcist in Russia was Father German, a priest who began practising near Moscow in the 1980s. His reputation spread through word of mouth. Igumen Philaret, a man who knew Father German, described witnessing the following scene at one of his exorcisms:

One little boy was screaming terribly. He ripped away all his clothes and was rolling naked on the floor … ‘Mama, mama! Pull the tail out of my mouth!’ … Father sprinkled him with holy water … Then it became clear – as is often the cause of demonic possession in children – his mother had not repented of her abortions.

But what happened in the 1980s to spur the interest in exorcisms in Russia? According to some researchers, such as Pavel Nosachev of HSE University in Moscow, the emotional strain caused by the gradual collapse of the Soviet Union led people to “search for spirituality”.

As communist ideology waned, underground religious groups flourished and the Orthodox Church revived after decades of repression. Hypnotists and self-proclaimed psychic healers, such as Anatoly Kashpirovsky, also became prominent on television. A crisis in shared meaning produced a boom both in religious ritual and occult experimentation. This included exorcism.

Media reporting suggests that the business of “banishing demons” seen in present-day Russia is also reflective of a society under strain – but, in this case, one grappling with the effects of the war in Ukraine.

According to research on how humans cope with awareness of their death, religion works as a shield against existential anxieties. This can intensify during times of crisis, such as war. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, for example, church attendance increased worldwide and Bible sales soared.

The Russian Orthodox Church’s appointment of Vladimir Putin as “chief exorcist” in 2022 could also help explain why some Russians have been drawn into a fight with their inner demons. The Russian president’s appointment came after the Kremlin called for Ukraine to be “desatanised”.

‘Exorcism tourism’

The renewed interest in exorcism within Russia may represent a broader cultural response to political and personal instability – echoing the turbulence of the 1980s. But the country has also long nurtured an appetite for the paranormal.

Russian audiences have spent nearly two decades watching the popular television show, Battle of the Psychics. This show showcases the supposed paranormal abilities of self-proclaimed healers, witches and mediums in various competitive challenges. A recent episode even featured a live exorcism.

Just as Battle of Psychics spawned a multimillion-ruble industry of celebrity healers, Russia’s wartime exorcism surge reveals a similar monetisation of fear and uncertainty. What was once a localised ritual appears to be evolving into a structured commercial service – a phenomenon I call “exorcism tourism”.

As Nosachev observed in 2023: “Largely due to the connection with business – tours for otchitkas or donations for an exorcism session – this practice is now perceived as a commodity in a spiritual supermarket, which is characteristic of the consumer culture that has become a basis of the New Age.”

This commercialisation is visible in organised trips. Among the many adverts I have seen in recent years, a tour encouraging people “facing difficult life circumstances or physical and spiritual illnesses” to travel from Belarus to Russia “for exorcism” stands out.

The itinerary includes a consultation and private conversation with well-known “media exorcist” Father Gusev, as well as an application for an exorcism. Father Gusev fronts a rock band called “The Exorcist”, with the tour’s website claiming he has performed more than 15,000 exorcisms in 26 years.

In a country unsettled by war, uncertainty and spiritual volatility, Russia’s exorcism economy looks to be advancing. For some Russians, it seems that exorcisms offer not just a ritual but a sense of control amid everyday chaos.

Santa Kravcenko does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. The Ukraine war has given rise to an ‘exorcism economy’ in Russia – https://theconversation.com/the-ukraine-war-has-given-rise-to-an-exorcism-economy-in-russia-271037