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May was going to be the month of great celebrations and indisputable triumphs. For an increasingly beloved leader and for a country in clear economic recovery, more capable than others to control any epidemic. But things have gone wrong for Vladimir Putin, at least so far. From the coronavirus, which seems to be furious (also) against Russia, to international maneuvers to stabilize the price of crude oil, which seem to have the opposite effect. The state budget in difficulty; not to mention pensions and wages, not to mention the referendum that three weeks ago should have been confirmed with great emphasis The will of the Russian people to maintain Vladimir Vladimirovich for decades.
And so, in an atmosphere of great sadness, the Russian President found himself alone on his knees to put flowers in front of the perennial flame that honors the fallen of World War II under the walls of the Kremlin. It should have been a great opportunity to remember after 75 years the huge blood tribute paid by the Soviet Union to the fight against Nazism. Something that reminded me of that famous day in 1945 when, after four years of bloody fighting, Red Army soldiers marched past throwing all the flags of the annihilated Nazi regiments to the ground.
Putin, on the other hand, was just celebrating, meeting the heirs of the fallen in those epic battles virtually, reviewing the presidential regiment. The parade was not officially canceled, but was postponed, as the president himself recalled without mentioning the main cause of everything that is happening, the epidemic. Russia claims to be the country with the most tests in the world, more than five million. However, it is registering a very high number of cases: 11,000 in the last 24 hours for a total of almost two hundred thousand. Fortunately, only the deceased are few, 1,827.
Perhaps not to be accused of doing something wrong, Putin remained a little behind the scenes, leaving the head of government Mikhail Mishustin, who was ill with Covid, along with two ministers, to handle the crisis.
Unlike other leaders who saw his popularity increase during the management of the epidemic, Putin, perhaps also due to his absence, He has hit his lowest point since he became president in 2000, at least according to an independent telephone survey: 59 percent against a maximum of 85% reached in 2015.
But beyond the coronavirus, things are going wrong on all fronts. Russia continues to be treated as a pariah by the West, with the sanctions still in force and its non-participation in the meetings of the most important countries in the world. With oil sailing around $ 29 a barrel, Moscow cannot be called an economic superpower (this year the state budget was expected to break even with a price of about $ 40 a barrel). Economic growth is a thing of the past, as the domestic product is expected to decrease between 4 and 6% for the current year. And the costs of the companies that caused Moscow’s international isolation, such as the annexation of Crimea or support for the Ukrainian Donbass rebels, are the burden of annual budgets. But in any case, with or without a referendum, only one thing seems certain: Putin will not leave the Kremlin for a time.
May 9, 2020 (change May 9, 2020 | 11:27 pm)
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