Moscow Drops Newspapers as ‘Goods of First Necessity’ that Can Be Sold During Pandemic without Restriction

Paul Goble

            Staunton, March 29 – The Russian government has released a new list of goods that can be sold without restrictionduring any emergency in response to the coronavirus pandemic. In the old list, newspapers were listed; in the new list, they are not, an indication the authorities may try to use this crisis to limit these alternatives to state TV.

            The new list is available at http://government.ru/docs/39306/. It is compared with the old list by Yelena Krivyankina at https://www.kp.ru/daily/27110.5/4186971/. What makes ths move especially ominous, she suggests, is that the government tried to hide what it is doing by keeping the approved list at 23, something it did by subdividing other categories to hide those dropped.

            Newspapers are not the only items included in the earlier list but not included in the new one. Also dropped are computers, which when linked to the Internet, are another way for Russians to get news that is not entirely controlled by the Kremlin, and fire alarms, a decision that may come back to haunt the regime.