Since Start of Expanded War in 2022, Russians have Increasingly Turned to Fortune Tellers and Witchcraft, Statistics Show

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Feb. 1 – Since Putin began his expanded war in Ukraine in February 2022, Russians have increasingly turned to fortune tells and other forms of witchcraft to help them cope with the increasing uncertainty in their lives, spending increasingly vast sums on such services, a trend Russian sociologists say shows no sign of easing.
    In the Moscow Times, journalist Dmitry Petrov provides some statistics regarding just how much money is now going to these black arts and the observation of independent Moscow anthropologist Aleksandra Arkhipova on why this is happening in Russia today (moscowtimes.ru/2025/01/31/rasteryannaya-rossiya-magiya-voina-i-z-kultura-a153860).
    In 2024, Petrov reports, Russian spent 2.4 trillion rubles (24 billion US dollars) on such services, more than four percent of what they spent on food. A year earlier, they paid witches two trillion rubles (20 billion US dollars), “twenty times more than they spent on visits to psychotherapists.”
    Visits to websites of astrologists, numerologists and fortune tellers rose 38 percent over the last year, and the average time spent on visits rose by 19 percent. Moreover, Ivanov reports, “more than half of Russians often study horoscopes, a quarter believe they have encountered magic, and more than 30 percent are ready to visit fortune tellers.”
    He continues: “In 2024, Russians spent 1.9 billion rubles (19 million US dollars) on fortune telling cards at Ozon and Wildberries,” more than twice as much as they spent on such things two years earlier. And the numbers continue to rise: in December 2024, Russians spent 129.5 million rubles, 18 million more than in December 2023.
    Independent anthropologist Arkhipova offers an explanation: “a belief in witchcraft … is characteristic of a culture of pessimistic conformist, people who do not go against the system and who justify their lack of action by saying that there are secret rules and that these rules must be followed,” a position many Russians now freely acknowledge.
    But there are other factors at work too, she says. Among these are a sense of confusion and powerlessness and the loss of confidence in the world around them at a time of “chaos and madness.”