Pandemic Growing Threat to Russia’s National Security, ‘Zavtra’ Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 2 – Zavtra warns the pandemic is posing an ever greater threat to national security because it is increasing distrust in the authorities, involving violations of individual rights, leading to fears of increased control, and infuriating people over distance learning and employment, making protests and other forms of instability more likely (zavtra.ru/blogs/riski_i_ugrozi_nekotorih_antikovidnih_mer_v_aspekte_natcional_noj_bezopasnosti).

            The pandemic continues to spread and grow (regnum.ru/news/society/3128044.html). Russia set a new record for deaths from the coronavirus today, with 589 lethal outcomes being recorded. The authorities also reported that they had registered 25,345 new cases of infection, bringing those totals to 41,053 and 2,347,401 respectively (t.me/COVID2019_official/2093).

            The number of schools reported in quarantine nearly doubled over the last 24 hours, with 56 percent of Russians telling pollsters that they were tired of having children being kept at home and taking classes online (regnum.ru/news/3130528.html and regnum.ru/news/3130778.html).

            Vladimir Putin said the country’s healthcare system was expanding to take care of the increased number of coronavirus infections (regnum.ru/news/3131068.html), but despite that and despite the beginning of vaccinations next week, many localities, including St. Petersburg, are imposing tough new restrictions on all places where people might gather (gov.spb.ru/press/governor/202461/).

            Looking forward to end of the year parties, about half of all employees said they would attend company parties if reasonable precautions were taken, but nearly a third said they would not because no restrictions at such functions would protect them from infection  (regnum.ru/news/3130527.html).

            Vladimir Putin announced the mass vaccinations will begin next week and that two million doses are ready for that (regnum.ru/news/3131112.html and regnum.ru/news/3131132.html). Other officials said 100,000 Russians had already been vaccinated (regnum.ru/news/3131171.html). It appears that many of the first to get the vaccine are uniformed military (ura.news/news/1052461262).

            The authorities continue to say that they will meet domestic needs first and that the program will be completely voluntary for all groups (regnum.ru/news/3130753.html and regnum.ru/news/3130794.html). But the state media is fearing ever more scare stories apparently intended to convince people to be vaccinated (regnum.ru/news/3130367.html).

            On the economic front, experts say the decline in Russian industry is accelerating again (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5FC739A1EF60E), with one sign being a more rapid decline in the use of public transportation (regnum.ru/news/3131314.html). Bicycle riding, however, has more than doubled since the start of the pandemic.

            Meanwhile, in other pandemic-related developments in Russia today,

·         The Supreme Court has ruled that Russian business people have the right to refuse service to anyone not wearing a mask (regnum.ru/news/3130700.html).

·         Consistent with patterns elsewhere, the pandemic has increased the total workload of Russian women more than it has of Russian men (polit.ru/article/2020/12/02/pandemic/).

·         Some epidemiological models suggest there will be a third wave of the pandemic after the second ends and that then the coronavirus will become a seasonal disease like the flu (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5FC65D166FED9).