Paul
Goble
Staunton, June 29 – Had the Russian
government not shut down most economic activity and ordered the self-isolation
of millions of Russians and had not the people largely complied, the country
would have suffered “no fewer than 80,000” additional deaths from the
coronavirus pandemic, the Higher School of Economics says (hse.ru/news/expertise/376047710.html).
Indeed, that has been a worldwide
pattern: where governments have taken tough measures and where their
populations have obeyed, losses have been far lower than where regimes have
focused on the economy rather than on public health and where the population
has assumed it can do what it likes.
Nonetheless, Russians too have
suffered, as today’s new overall figures show: 6719 more cases were registered,
bringing the cumulative total to 641,156; and 93 more Russians died, bringing
that total to 6719 (t.me/COVID2019_official/912).
But those overall figures fail to capture where the pandemic has nonetheless
hit especially hard.
Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov says that 40 Russian diplomats have been infected and
that one of them has died (russian.rt.com/russia/video/759382-lavrov-mid-epidemiya-krasovskii).
Medical personnel and those who operate homes for the elderly have also been
disproportionately hit (kemprok.ru/52979.htm
and zona.media/chronicle/krnjn#32252).
And
perhaps especially worrisome for Moscow, a large number of Rosatom workers have
been forced to go into quarantine because of the spread of infections in that sector,
something that has delayed construction projects there (proekt.media/narrative/koronavirus-rosatom/).
Vladimir
Putin who has been speaking to Russians almost daily after a long gap did his
best to counter rumors that someone was behind the virus. He said that he did
not believe it had been artificially created or weaponized by anyone (capost.media/news/obshchestvo/putin-does-not-believe-that-the-coronavirus-you-got-thrown/).
The
mixed pattern of openings and closings continued. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry
Chernyshenko said movie theaters across the country would be reopened as of
July 15 (ria.ru/20200629/1573617654.html).
But Kalmykia extended its shutdown of such public facilities because of high
rates of infection (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/351333/).
But in some places, like Chechnya, the population
questioned the lifting of restrictions by the authorities, telling journalists
that the epidemiological situation they still observe around them does not
justify taking that step and that the reopening is being handled in a poorly coordinated
way (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/351334/).
A new
survey of Russian businessmen found that most of them fear that Russia is
headed into a prolonged “depression” (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/77724), and Just Russia Duma deputy Valery Gartung
denounced the banks for what he said was their commitment to greed over public
service (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/77734).
And
officials and human rights groups continued to clash over whether control
devices put in place during the pandemic and likely to remain so constitute a
violation of Russian rights, with the Moscow Information Technologies
Department saying street cameras are no more intrusive than police (zona.media/chronicle/karantin).
Meanwhile, in other pandemic-related
news from Russia today,
·
An
expert at the Institute for CIS Countries says the outmigration of workers from
Central Asia and the Caucasus has been far less than many have expected and
some are reporting (materik.ru/rubric/detail.php?ID=105444).
·
Russians
have been using flights via Minsk and Belgrade to reach European destinations during
the shutdown of direct flights (znak.com/2020-06-29/kak_oboyti_zapret_na_turpoezdki_iz_rossii_i_otdohnut_na_pustynnyh_plyazhah_turcii).
·
And
psychologists are warning that many Russians will have a hard time returning to
the office after so many weeks at home and advising those that do not to be
afraid to seek help (rosbalt.ru/piter/2020/06/29/1851009.html).
No comments:
Post a Comment