Thursday, May 7, 2020

All the Numbers in Crisis-Ridden Russia Moving in Directions Unfavorable to the Regime


Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 7 – For the fourth day in a row, the number of Russians who have been tested and found infected with the coronavirus has risen by more than 10,000, bringing the overall number to more than 165,000 (vedomosti.ru/society/articles/2020/05/06/829628-v-rossii-viyavili-zarazivshihsya-koronavirusom and kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5EB2401C4F02E).

            But that is not the only statistic that is moving in ways the Kremlin can’t possibly like. VTsIOM reports that the share of Russians who trust Vladimir Putin has fallen to 28 percent, the lowest share ever (capost.media/news/politika/putin-s-rating-reached-a-record-low-/). And the government’s tax colleections are down by 30 percent (meduza.io/news/2020/05/06/nalogovye-postupleniya-v-rossii-v-aprele-sokratilis-na-30).

            Unemployment is surging, with nearly a third of people who can’t make loan payments saying that it is because they don’t have jobs and experts indicating that the numbers of jobless will continue to rise for as long as they can see (capost.media/news/obshchestvo/number-neplatelschikov-on-loans-in-russia-increased-in-the-period-of-epidemic-and-isolation/, mbk-news.appspot.com/news/reraf-30-virusa/ and russian.eurasianet.org/россия-во-взрывном-росте-безработицы-не-сомневаются-ни-эксперты-ни-чиновники).

            Even those who have jobs are seeing their salaries or wages drop and by amounts greater than in the decade before Putin came to power (eastrussia.ru/news/ekspert-snizhenie-zarplat-v-rossii-budet-boleznennee-chem-v-90-kh/).

            Key institutions like the Russian Orthodox Church are being hurt with many clergy infected and church revenues down so far that Patriarch Kirill has called for layoffs in his fiefdom (ahilla.ru/kolichestvo-klirikov-rpts-zabolevshih-kovidom-uvelichivaetsya-s-kazhdym-dnem/ and politsovet.ru/66351-rpc-predlozhila-uvolnyat-rabotnikov-prihodov-i-otpravlyat-ih-v-otpuska-bez-zarplaty.html).

            Meanwhile, five other pandemic and economic crisis-related developments are worth noting:





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