Moscow Launches Hybrid Attack on Khabarovsk Protests by Introducing Plague Quarantine and Reopening Entertainment Centers

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 7 – As demonstrations in Khabarovsk prepared to enter their fifth week, the Kremlin has shown that it has more ways to deal with the protesters than making concessions that would likely lead to new demands or crushing the protests by force, a move that would spark outrage across the Russian Federation.

            Instead, it is simultaneously making use of two possibilities to limit the number of Khabarovsk residents who are still ready to come into the streets. On the one hand, the Russian authorities have issued a new quarantine, not for the coronavirus pandemic but for plague. And on the other, they have ended coronavirus restrictions on entertainment centers.

            The first of these moves affect only portions of the kray (sovross.ru/news/49485) but are likely to spread fears of going into public among a much larger group of the population. The second is likely to prove the more consequential because now Khabarovsk residents will have more things to do (eastrussia.ru/news/attraktsiony-i-muzei-vozobnovyat-rabotu-v-khabarovskom-krae/).

            Kray officials have announced that as of August 12, they will allow museums and children’s recreation centers to reopen and that they will permit football matches as long as the number of fans is kept low and/or they pass through disinfection devices which have been set up outside Lenin Stadium in the region’s capital.

            These re-openings follow the re-opening of cafes and restaurants on August 9 and of summer camps which have been functioning since August 1 (eastrussia.ru/news/kafe-i-restorany-zarabotayut-s-9-avgusta-v-khabarovskom-krae-/ and eastrussia.ru/news/detskie-letnie-lagerya-mogut-otkryt-v-khabarovske/).

            At the same time, the regional authorities announced the extension of self-isolation measures for those 65 and older and the maintenance of a mask regime in all public places. And they extended the prohibition on mass meetings, a prohibition that has been completely ignored by the population.

            The overwhelming percentage of those taking part in the Khabarovsk protests over the last month are committed to the ideas their leaders have expressed; but as time goes on and many become fatigued, at least some are likely to drop out. That is all the more likely if they have alternatives – and that appears to be what the powers that be are counting on.