|
2020-04-16 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
|
|
As COVID-19 cases spike in Russia, the Kremlin struggles to respond
|
[CBC] - Quite uncharacteristically, the Russian state TV host did not bury the bad news as he led off the show.
"We're now following the same model as Italy," Yevgeny Popov said in a stunning about-face from just two weeks ago, when the host of the popular Russian talk show 60 Minutes said the government was getting the coronavirus outbreak under control.
Now, Russia's most widely watched Kremlin-funded news programs are telling people they should prepare for thousands of deaths.
Along with that shift in messaging has also come a change in behaviour from President Vladimir Putin.
Putin had been keeping an unusually low profile as the virus spread, preferring to make good news pronouncements such as paid holidays for workers and help for businesses, while leaving unpopular decisions such as enforcing quarantines to lower-level officials.
But this week, a concerned-looking Putin has made daily addresses, emphasizing that the situation has become dire and Russians should prepare themselves for plenty more bad news.
...But the biggest reversal came on Wednesday with a decision to postpone the May 9 Victory Day parade marking the 75th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe — a hugely symbolic event, arguably more important to many Russians than even the Olympics.
...Russia has developed its own COVID-19 tests that the government claims have been administered to more than a million people, but there have been repeated criticisms about large numbers of false-negatives.
...Prominent economist Alexei Kudrin, the architect of many of Russia's most successful financial reforms and now an auditor of government spending, told a Russian business publication that the economic implications of the outbreak are close to catastrophic.
He predicts more than eight million Russians may be unemployed by the end of 2020 — a threefold increase from the start of the crisis.
Compared to Canada, which has a robust unemployment system and has introduced other benefits to help during the emergency, Russia's social supports are relatively meagre.
The TASS Russian news agency reports that the amount available to a single person per month ranges from between $30 and $150 Cdn. 
|
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-04-16 12:06||
||
Front Page|| [12 views ]
Top
|
|
Posted by Besoeker 2020-04-16 12:23||
2020-04-16 12:23||
Front Page
Top
|
|
09:54 Super Hose
09:54 Huputle+Cherelet4131
09:53 Huputle+Cherelet4131
09:49 Huputle+Cherelet4131
09:43 Super Hose
09:42 Spats+B.+Hayes8168
09:38 badanov
09:30 Frank G
09:25 Skidmark
09:23 Skidmark
09:18 Pholusing Sq
09:18 Silentbrick
09:16 ed in texas
09:14 Skidmark
09:11 ed in texas
09:10 Warthog
09:09 M. Murcek
09:08 M. Murcek
09:05 Skidmark
09:05 ed in texas
09:00 ed in texas
08:59 Skidmark
08:57 Skidmark
08:53 M. Murcek
|
