Paul Goble
Staunton, Aug. 6 – Putin’s cutting of government spending on healthcare, something he undertook to find more money for his war in Ukraine and has justified by pointing to how few people many medical points in rural areas serve, has now come to St. Petersburg, yet another sign his efforts to isolate the capitals from such policies is failing.
Leaders of the healthcare committee of the city’s parliament say hospitals there must cut their budgets by 15 percent before the end of 2026, a move that means the pain and suffering Putin’s healthcare “optimization” plan has already inflicted on rural Russians will now their fellow citizens in a major urban area (fontanka.ru/2026/08/06/76574835/ and kasparovru.com/material.php?id=6A7572ED370BD&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook).
Putin has generally been able to keep the two Russian capitals quiet since he launched his expanded war in Ukraine in February 2022 by recruiting soldiers from beyond their borders and cutting spending in the regions more than in the capital. But this announcement is a clear sign that the Kremlin leader’s efforts to keep the big cities isolated in this way are no longer working.
And that in turn means that residents of these two large cities may protest the cuts inflicted on them and, connecting the dots, on the leader and his policies that have made those draconian budgetary moves necessary. The first such protest in fact may come soon, at the ballot box in September’s Duma elections.
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