Crisis in Russia Unpacking like a Matryoshka Doll, Melnikov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 27 – The current crisis in Russia, one that has been developing over the last several years only to be heightened by the pandemic, resembles the popular children’s toy, the matryoshka, in that each crisis there as it develops is lifted off only to reveal another crisis within it, Moscow writer Aleksey Melnikov says.

            “The first ‘matryoshka,’” he says, “is the crisis of administration. The authorities have shown that they can’t run the country and aren’t adequate to the tasks at hand.” They can’t help doctors or the sick, they have left millions without income, and they have done so despite the enormous resources they could deploy (blog.newsru.com/article/27apr2020/matreshka).

            “The second ‘matryoshka’ is the crisis of trust in the authorities. Everyone can see that there are resources, but they aren’t being used or are being used incorrectly. How can anyone trust the authorities in this case?”  And the statements the powers that be have made about Russians’ failure to get the treatment they need have made things worse.

            People aren’t going to hospitals because they are stupid but because “they do not believe in the healthcare system.” They’re afraid that they will get worse if they go. “They have every reason to think so thanks to ‘the optimization’ of medicine” carried out by Putin, Golikova and Skvortsova.”

            “Finally, there is the third ‘matroyshka,’ the one now looming and the most important, a political crisis. This is when the recognition of the inability of the powers to administer the country and distrust in them grows over into actions against the powers that be,” the commentator continues.

            One can expect that to appear “after the end of the epidemic. Meetings, demonstrations, pickets and of course the use of voting (at the plebiscite and in the fall elections) will be a chance to change the system of power in Russia. And this will end will millions in the streets. The powers themselves are pushing things in that direction.”

            “The longer the epidemic lasts, the less money people have, the more the powers try to deal with the situation by means of the imitation of support while they seek to keep the trillions in the public funds, the more probable this political crisis becomes,” Melnikov argues. The innermost matryoshka doll will appear when people decide that they can’t live like this anymore.