One in Four Russians Already Effectively Bankrupt from Isolation Regime, Zhukovsky Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 31 – Many Russians were financially overstretched even before the pandemic struck, Moscow economist Vladislav Zhukovsky says; but the self-isolation regime and the inability of many to work and earn money is pushing ever more of them over the brink into bankruptcy.

            At present, he says, one in four Russians – some 35 million people – live in households that are effectively bankrupt in that they have no prospects to pay back the loans they have taken out. And if the pandemic restrictions continue, that number will almost certainly go up in the absence of serious government intervention (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/76809).

            But this Sunday has brought no indication that the pandemic is about to disappear or that restrictions should be lifted across the board.  Officials announced that the number of new infections rose to 9268, bringing the total to 404,843, with a total of more than 10.6 million having been tested so far (kp.ru/daily/27136.5/4227749/).

            Some Russian medical experts told Komsomolskaya pravda that the pandemic is easing, but others were equally convinced that the country still has a long way to go and will face a second wave of the coronavirus later this year and early next during the period when ordinary flu again becomes widespread.

            Because of these prospects, ever more Russians appear to be focusing on the rush to find a vaccine. More than 150 different organizations, including both academic institutions and private firms, are involved, and have come up with more than a dozen possible medications (kp.ru/daily/27136.5/4227746/).

            But an online discussion among scholars showed that while some of them are hopeful about a possible breakthrough, many are skeptical, suggesting that long months of testing are ahead before the vaccines can be used on the general population and that even when that time comes there will be problems like side effects that have yet to be fully understood.

            Meanwhile, the federal consumer affairs office, in response to growing demands from the population to reopen religious facilities, has been actively discussing how to ensure that churches, mosques, synagogues, and other shrines can open safely (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/76843).

            The consumer affairs office has issued a statement saying that people over 65 or with underlying medical conditions should avoid services even when the religious centers reopen, that religious leaders wear masks, and that facilities be cleaned far more regularly and rigorously than in the past.

            What the office did not say and what religious officials are concerned about is whether the government will impose fines on those religious groups that fail to live up to those standards, something that would require an even more invasive presence by officials than is currently the case in Russia.