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That is probably what the Kremlin intended. Muscovites are aware that their freedom from the crown came in anticipation of a July 1 vote on a new constitution that Putin needed to push to potentially extend his reign until 2036, but there has been little setback.
Reports of mass electoral fraud have not sparked public anger, and there have been no protests on the scale of the protests last summer. (There are riots in the far east of the country over the arrest of a popular anti-Kremlin governor, but for now they have remained local.)
Instead, Muscovites thank Putin for forcing the Moscow mayor to lift the shutdown earlier than planned, and his popularity has skyrocketed.
Most Russians are relieved to be free again, despite the country still registering more than 6,000 new cases per day. International borders may still be closed, but most Russians have thrown caution to the wind and already embraced a post-crown future.
Crimea has become the new Ibiza, with mass Muscovites flocking to the rocky beaches of the contested peninsula for their late summer vacation. The arrogant attitude towards wearing masks and social distancing among most Russians makes a second deadliest wave in the fall, or earlier, even more likely.
But for now, crown nihilists have the upper hand in Russia: A survey by the Moscow Higher School of Economics found that an astonishing third of Russians do not believe in the coronavirus pandemic and consider the threat to be exaggerated.
With an official death toll of just over 10,000 deaths from nearly 1 million infections, your arrogant attitude has some basis in statistics, or in government statistics anyway. Although the New York Times claims that the Kremlin has been distorting events so as not to report the true death rate, official figures have helped quell the initial crown panic.
“I feel sorry for the Americans,” a taxi driver confessed the other day. “They had over 100,000 deaths while we had far fewer due to our superior medical care.”
In addition to the low official death count, there is another reason for the local crown. cold bloodand people’s willingness to play Russian roulette with their health.
Perhaps given their brutal and violent history, Russians are more fatalistic than others, and more inclined to shrug off chaos, disasters, and pandemics than to actively change their behavior and take precautions to mitigate dangers.
The Russians even have a word, to you, for its fatalism: it roughly translates as believing that life is unpredictable and that little can be done to change one’s destiny. Even Putin spoke when he asked the Russians to take the threat of the crown seriously in late March of this year and not “trust our good old Russian to you. “
So while other countries reverse the restrictions as infections increase, Russia opened up with a bang. Even the strict guidelines on the mandatory use of masks on the streets have now been rescinded.
The lifting of the crown restrictions so quickly has led to a summer of euphoria as the weary Russians of the confinement enjoy their freedom again. Although many have come out poorer on the other side, their financial future is more uncertain, that has not prevented them from packing the parks and crowding the discotheques.
The carefree atmosphere fits perfectly with Putin’s plans. While Russia’s parties and minds are on the sunny beaches of Crimea, the Kremlin has taken advantage of the vacuum to relentlessly suppress its critics.
Within days of voting on the new constitution, former journalist Ivan Safronov was arrested for treason, and police broke into Pussy Riot activist Pyotr Verzilov’s apartment, accusing him of allegedly failing to declare his Canadian citizenship.
The arrest of Sergei Furgal, an anti-Kremlin governor, in the far eastern region of Khaborovsk on murder charges dating back 15 years has raised the most serious challenge to the post-Putin referendum crackdown, with more than 15,000 protesters on last weekend. “This is another intimidation campaign,” tweeted prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
At another time, these harsh moves could have led to street protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg as well, but most Russians are too busy celebrating to notice. Putin has been given free rein over the summer at least so they can finally let their hair down. They may even be willing to give you consent longer, as long as there is no other block.
Any conversation about a new round of restrictions in the fall if cases escalate after a summer of neglect could abruptly end a happy conversation. Having experienced totalitarianism and the dark purges of the Stalin era, restricting their freedoms again terrifies Russians more than the coronavirus.
Putin understands his mindset, making it unlikely, despite persistent rumors to the contrary, that the Kremlin will order another shutdown, even if the cases skyrocket. A second quarantine could lead to street protests and further paralyze the Russian economy, which is already expected to contract more than 6 percent this year, according to the World Bank.
The unemployed Russians could turn their anger on the Kremlin, and Putin’s carefully constructed plans for the eternal rule over Mother Russia could begin to crumble.
The Kremlin is more likely to keep spinning the stats to minimize the threat and let the Russians enjoy their wonderful ignorance. Russia has learned from neighboring Belarus, which has never ordered locks even during the peak of its crown peaks: Now it seems that the Kremlin plans to let the virus run wild until it burns in the vastness of Russia.
That strategy could be disastrous for Russia’s most vulnerable, especially its pensioners, but as long as hospitals can handle the increase, Putin should come out unscathed. Unlike the unpopular former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who turned the country against him by imposing a severe ban in 1985, Putin does not want to close the party and jeopardize his regime.
He knows that as long as the Russians are free and happy, he can escape with murder.
