3 May 2020
I just overheard a Russian language podcast saying that “we want him alive to stand a trial” for the mismanagement of the epidemic and destruction of Russian economy and ordinary people livelihoods. “Him” is the prime-minister of Russia Mr. Mishustin, who contracted SARS-CoV-2 virus earlier this week. He is doing well so far, even although he is overweight and does not look like a picture of health. It does not sound like his hospitalization was necessary. The announcement about his infection was aired live on the national television during routine meeting of the government. Mr. Putin agreed with Mr. Mishustin proposal to appoint his deputy as an acting prime-minister, wished him well, and … (DO NOT LAUGH, please) asked him to make sure to call from hospital.
To make sure, I was always of a very high opinion of Mr. Putin. My company dealt with his office in early 1990s, when he was deputy mayor of St. Petersburg for economic development. We were never asked to pay bribes, or subjected to any other form of economic extortion, which was rampant in Russia at the time. He brought Russia from the brink of collapse and civil war in 1999-2000 to a flourishing society with all of the freedoms and some more. Of note, it has 4 (four) parties in the parliament with a ruling party commanding only 54% of members.
Mr. Putin made momentous missteps in the last 3 months.
He agreed to consider running for office for 2 more terms beyond 2024, which takes the country to 2036 (the presidential term is 6 years). Even that would be okey, but then:
He failed to negotiate OPEC+ agreement, which dropped price of oil features to -$40 (minus) at one point, and, almost simultaneously,
Shut down Russian economy due to “herd mentality” and bad advice on handling the epidemic;
Just as in the USA, he allowed a free reign of governors who eagerly grabbed power and do not seem to be willing to give it up any time soon.
One would ask, what it has to do with the United States? It does: we have the same problem here. The POTUS and his “geniuses-advisors” mishandled the crisis, allowed power grab by governors and lesser bureaucrats. The unemployment, suffering of people with other - “non-COVID-19” conditions, destruction of businesses, etc. eclipsed what we thought was the worst time in the US history - the “Great Depression”. The POTUS and his band (Dr. F, Dr. B et al.) must be kept alive to stand trial for the destruction of the United States economy. I voted for Mr. Trump in 2016, because he seemed to much more adequate, capable and less corrupt than Mrs. Clinton.
I do not regret voting for Mr. Trump, but I am deeply disappointed by his performance. The most fundamental issue is his appalling lack of knowledge and understanding of the world. I must say: he is a “typical American” who does not know the world map. He also failed to hire knowledgeable and bipartisan advisors.
The history will remember this time as the episode of “Corona psychosis”. This is the expression used by the President of Belarus Mr. Lukashenko, who had the courage and will-power NOT to follow the herd: the USA, Russia and most of the world. Belarus is a “Sweden of Eastern Europe”: no lockdowns or anything else of that kind. They are doing just fine with 16,705 cases of COVID-19 and only 99 deaths for the same population of 10 million as Sweden. On that count, I propose to call Sweden a “Belarus of Western Europe”!
The upcoming Victory Day over the Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War, which is celebrated on May 9th and is, arguably, the most important holiday for the majority of people in the Former Soviet Union (other than Nazi collaborationists and traitors). Belarus will celebrate with a traditional military parade. The parade in Belarus was usually overshadowed by the Russian one - but not this year: Russia, the sister nation (Belarus and Russia make up the Union “confederate” State) postponed its parade for sometime later this year.
All right, the USA, Russia, Sweden and Belarus… Who else? Everybody, unfortunately.
One of the vivid examples is Austria: seemingly and an island of stability in Europe. The member of Austrian parliament Mr. Herbert KIck spoke into the face of Chancellor (prime-minister) Mr. Sebastian Kurz about his failure to act to save lives and economy. Please listen to the speech here . It is in German, but one can get English auto-translation by turning “ON” closed captions then Settings - Subtitles - Auto translate - English.
Let’s make sure these characters stay alive, so we can put then on trial soon.
P.S. Stay tuned for the next blog which will address funding of virus “gain of function” research, which, in plane English, means engineering of deadly (corona)viruses to escape our defenses. Sadly, I must admit that I was right again: the official theory now is that the virus escaped lab (either in China or the USA) by accident by infecting one of its workers and then spreading as a fire.
The good news: if the virus DID escape the lab, it is a one-time accident, which will be contained sooner rather than later. The bad news would be the virus “jumping” from bats, which would mean it is only a matter of time before the next “jump”.