Paul Goble
Staunton, October 10 – As infections hit new highs and more restrictions are imposed, Russians are increasingly angry not only about the coronavirus but about the government for its response. Some are simply ignoring the restrictions, others are going online to complain, and a few have organized groups to oppose the government’s actions.
In many cases, Russians are not wearing masks or maintaining social distance, and ever more of them are saying they won’t do so and won’t get vaccinated either (mk.ru/social/2020/10/10/rossiyane-naplevali-na-koronavirus-pochemu-grazhdane-ne-soblyudayut-mery-bezopasnosti.html and ruskline.ru/news_rl/2020/10/10/privivatsya_ili_ne_privivatsya).
Bloggers are ever more critical of the policies announced by the Kremlin and by the Moscow city authorities (regnum.ru/news/3086395.html and regnum.ru/news/3086388.html) and questioning the right of the powers to impose controls (svpressa.ru/society/article/278157/). Some are condemning Moscow for trying to hide behind the regions in this regard (svpressa.ru/society/article/278174/).
But perhaps the most interesting if not the largest of these developments is the formation of an All-Russian Parental Resistance movement which plans a meeting tomorrow to discuss how to oppose the government’s quarantining of schools and to resist any further restrictions on educational institutions (regnum.ru/news/3086714.html).
New infections continue at record levels with deaths not far behind. Today, the authorities registered 1`2,846 new cases of infection and 197 new deaths, bringing those measures for the pandemic as a whole to 1,285,084 and 22,454 (echo.msk.ru/blog/covid2019_official/2723083-echo/).
The situation in Moscow was especially dire, with more infections, deaths and hospitalizations (regnum.ru/news/3086535.html, regnum.ru/news/3086535.html, and regnum.ru/news/3086531.html). And new statistics showed that 70 percent of the new cases there were among working-age adults (echo.msk.ru/blog/covid2019_official/2723087-echo/).
Beyond the ring road, the pandemic continued to ebb and flow, with some now viewing Moscow as a place they do not want to emulate because in the words of one commentator, the city government is acting like the FSB (regnum.ru/news/society/3082765.html and business-gazeta.ru/article/484022).
As an example of the city government’s new invasiveness, they point to plans to require those wishing to attend theater performances to show their passports to prove they are under 65 (ura.news/news/1052453575).
On the vaccine front, officials say that Russia doesn’t have enough imported vaccines for the flue and warn that even when Russians are vaccinated for the coronavirus, they will have to continue to wear masks for at least three weeks (https://regnum.ru/news/3086510.html and kp.ru/daily/217193.5/4301632/).
And regarding the economy, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin says it is important to avoid having to close down everything (regnum.ru/news/3086433.html). But bankruptcies are rising at unprecedented rates and office space in the capital is not being rented, both indications of problems already in place (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/80664 and rusmonitor.com/antirekord-na-rynke-moskovskoj-ofisnoj-nedvizhimosti.html).
No comments:
Post a Comment