Yesterday’s speech by Vladimir Putin, promising new support measures for the population and business, was meant to inspire Russians. Let’s discuss the measures later — the speech began with an assessment of the overall situation and the announcement of the end of non-working days and the beginning of economic recovery, so let’s start with that.
Looking at the numbers and graphs reflecting the dynamics of the number of infected and deceased in Russia, one cannot help but wonder — if the quarantine is being lifted now, what was the point of introducing it in the first place? After all, quarantines are lifted or eased in countries where the infection curve has already started to decline. In Russia, however, the decision to impose quarantine was made when there were far fewer confirmed cases, and the decision to begin lifting it was made when there were significantly more cases. Where is the logic? Or is this once again the «special Russian way»?
Moreover, Russia officially ranks third in the world in terms of the number of infected. However, analysis of publicly available information suggests that the situation may be even worse. For example, according to data published on the portal of the Moscow government, the number of deaths in the city in April this year exceeded the average for the past 10 years by 20%. In Moscow and St. Petersburg together there were 2073 more deaths in April than usual. If we add 1444 deaths from other causes to the 2009 coronavirus deaths, according to official statistics as of May 11, the mortality rate will increase by 72%. In reality, the numbers are probably even higher, since these are only the data for Moscow and St. Petersburg. Our readers in Dagestan or Ingushetia are unlikely to believe that there is a smaller percentage increase in mortality due to causes not officially recorded as coronavirus.
However, one can roughly guess what Putin’s motives are. He is trying to take credit as the savior of the Russian economy and the benefactor of the Russian people by distributing benefits, while shifting all responsibility for the situation with the coronavirus to the local authorities. As it is known, the formula of the social policy of the Putin group used to be «privatization of profits and nationalization of losses». Here we see something similar — «centralization of political profits and regionalization of political losses».
As for the support measures announced by Putin, they represent the implementation of 1/5 of the measures proposed in a plan previously voiced by Alexei Navalny. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTBs07VAkxU What’s funny, however, is that the same Kremlin propagandists who attacked Navalny, accusing him of populism for his proposals, yesterday, as if on command, began to praise the wisdom of their boss, who began to implement some of these proposals after the plan received a million signatures of support online.
In general, a perfect illustration of the vacillation of the current authorities in the coronavirus crisis situation is the story of the May 9th parade. On April 1, along with many media, we wrote about the insane actions of the authorities who, during the epidemic, gathered 15,000 soldiers and cadets for a parade rehearsal in Alabino. https://golosislama.com/news.php?id=38330 Realizing the absurdity of these actions and facing criticism, the authorities finally canceled the parade. However, the damage was done — as the results of a new journalistic investigation show, hundreds of cadets and servicemen were infected during this rehearsal. https://www.proekt.media/report/koronavirus-voennye/?fbclid=IwAR2gZq-D2mIoPaXfQfrrToH0mT-G_r5vyDbVj9GCMtARxwC6uVEpwteJy1c Only in military schools:
- Suvorov Military School — 90 cadets and 16 officers;
- Nakhimov Naval School — 100 cadets and 20 officers;
- Khaliylov Military Music School — 50 cadets;
- Military University of the Ministry of Defense — 100 out of 200 participants in the rehearsal, according to other sources, all 200 participated;
- Preobrazhensky Regiment and Zhukovsky-Gagarin Air Force Academy — exact numbers are unknown, but «mass infections» are reported.
In the end, the parade was canceled and all the glory of Victory Day’s main supporter went to Alexander Lukashenko as a true follower of the Soviet principle «we won’t spare any expenses». But before that, Russian cadets and servicemen paid about the same price for their preparation as the Belarusians.
And it’s the same with everything they do.