Putin’s Past Cutbacks in Support for Health Care ‘Provoking Protests’ Now, Fedorov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 10 – Vladimir Putin’s much-ballyhooed program to save money by cutting back on government spending for health care is contributing both to increasing anger among Russians and a greater willingness on their part to take part in protests, according to Georgy Fedorov of the Civic Solidarity Movement.

            He says that what Putin has done  is to reduce Russia to the status of a third world country in health care, that Russians have had that highlighted for themselves by the pandemic, and that they want to hold the Kremlin leader responsible for putting their lives at risk (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/78971).

            Putin and his officials “look at the situation like bookkeepers and do not see the consequences for the country over the longer term.” They think that cutting spending is good in and of itself even if it ruins the health and wellbeing of the Russian people and even if, as Fedorov says is likely, this will lead to more anti-regime protests.

            And whether they recognize it or not, this activist says, these officials are “digging their own graves” because such protests about cutbacks in social spending will inevitably spread and make it impossible for the regime to continue as it is or even to survive.

            Others have argued that shortcomings in health care spending are a major reason why the Russian people did not rally round the Kremlin leader as nations tend to do when they are faced with a crisis like the pandemic (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/07/pandemic-didnt-cause-russians-to-rally.html).        

            And ever more Russians can see ever more clearly that Putin is cutting back on such social spending in order to finance his military adventures, a shift in priorities that has ever less public support (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/07/even-at-time-of-pandemic-moscow-has.html).

           But Fedorov is among the first to link the protests now spreading in Russia to “optimization.” He is likely doing so not only because people have suffered and died as a result of the shuttering of medical facilities across the country but also because of a looming crisis with regard to the prices Russians have to pay for medications.

            According to Academician Sergey Kolesnikov, drug prices are set to grow by as much as 15 percent during the next sixth month, the result of declining supplies and increasing demand. He is calling for the government to increase subsidies, but there seems relatively little chance of that anytime soon (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/78965).