Paul
Goble
Staunton, April 22 – Since the start
of the year, Russian government propaganda about the pandemic has passed
through three stages, Kseniya Kirillova says. In February, Moscow focused on
criticism of the West; in March, it claimed that Russia was almost the only
country helping others. And now, it stresses the seriousness of pandemic to
justify its isolation measures.
At no point, however, have the
earlier stages disappeared, the US-based Russian journalist tells Ramazan
Alpaut of the IdelReal portal. Rather, the central focus of the media
has shifted. One can still find elements from the first two even as the third
has become the most important (idelreal.org/a/30567493.html).
Even as Moscow outlets concede that
Russia is having problems treating the victims of the pandemic and that the
number of cases is “higher than official statistics” suggest, the journalist
continues, some commentators continue to speak about the coronavirus as being “a
biological weapon” being used by some world government to eliminate “unneeded”
populations.
Another continuing theme, Kirillova
says, is that the opposition in Russia is exploiting the situation, with some
government outlets calling them “wreckers” and at least one urging that the
Kremlin launch a new 1937-style purge to eliminate such people altogether (facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3131291693570087&set=a.519617291404220).
Such notions have not yet penetrated
to the top levels of government media, Kirillova says; but with ever greater
frequency, the government media are attacking the opposition for its comments
about the pandemic and insufficiently “conscious” citizens for not observing
the restrictions the government has put in place.
Kirillova says that the Russian
media are not providing the population with sufficient information but that “the
problem is not so much that the Russian powers are ‘concealing’ the true number
of infected as that they in fact do not know what it is.” Many who do know part
of the story are afraid to say anything lest they be attacked for spreading “fake
news.”
She suggests that efforts to use the
pandemic to mobilize Russians around Putin, efforts including billboards
calling on people to pray for Russia and Putin, are achieving ever less,
especially given that the Kremlin leader’s public appearances have been ever less
convincing and impressive.
The pandemic has overwhelmed Ukraine
as the center of Russian media attention, Kirillova continues. When Ukraine is
mentioned now, it is generally in terms of its supposed failure to handle the coronavirus
as well as Russia has and the likelihood that the pandemic will speed Ukraine’s
collapse.
And she suggests that overshadowing
all of this is the way in which the Russian government media is using the pandemic
to cover or at least excuse all the regime’s mistakes and shortcomings by
suggesting that the coronavirus is to blame for everything bad and the
government everything good.
Meanwhile, there were three other
pandemic stories in Russia today worthy of note:
·
For
all the talk of coronavirus federalism, the regions are increasingly falling
into line behind Moscow’s approach. Twenty-one federal subjects, for example, are
asking the central government to help them introduce digital pass systems like the
one in the capital (capost.media/news/obshchestvo/the-digital-pass-will-be-introduced-in-21-region-of-russia/).
·
Confined
to their homes, Russians are spending massively on telecommunications.
According to Sberbank, they spend “almost 45 percent more” on modems, routers
and other computer products last week than the same period a year earlier (vedomosti.ru/technology/articles/2020/04/22/828748-raskupayut-modemi).
·
Because
Russian hospitals have been overwhelmed by the pandemic, those suffering from
hepatitis, HIV, and cancer are finding it ever more difficult to get treatment,
patient organizations say (kommersant.ru/doc/4327842).
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