Some commentators recalled how Stalin went to his dacha in the far 1941.

Over the past 20 years, the Russians are constantly told that they are not able to survive without its President and surgerie Vladimir Putin. Just a month ago the woman-cosmonaut of the Soviet era, and now the politician urged the Parliament to remove constitutional limitations, under which Vladimir Putin needs to resign as President in 2024. According to her, only he can save the country from crisis, and it is necessary to solve again and again to participate in the elections, writes the Economist (translation inosmi.ru).

Over the past few months, the Russian society was constantly told that the threat of coronavirus greatly exaggerated, that the Americans invented it to hurt China, and Russia are reliably protected. Today, Moscow and many other cities are in strict isolation, while the number of infections increases exponentially. However, Mr. Putin almost never appears in public and never leaves his residence. If the air and worn wine, he does not want to she was assigned to him.

Of course, Mr. Putin has performed one of its traditional public stunts in front of television cameras — he was dressed in a yellow protective suit, donned a respirator and visited as such, the hospital where the treatment of people infected with coronavirus. However, this kind of stunt made even more obvious lack of empathy and leadership.

Mr. Putin personally has not imposed quarantine or strict isolation and do not even use such words. He also did not declare a state of emergency, fearing that such a move could affect the rating of its popularity, declining for several consecutive months. However, he still extended the period of “days” until the end of April.

Noteworthy is the fact that he said nothing about the plans by the government to support the economy. Government officials, who are 40% of all employees will continue to receive their salaries. However, private firms were left to themselves. Mr. Putin has not presented a plan to combat the epidemic of coronavirus (Some commentators recalled how Stalin went to his distant country and remained there for the first few days after the German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941).

Unpopular measures, undoubtedly, will need to take. Mr. Putin shifted the responsibility on the governors of the regions. It would make sense if in the last 20 years he was not engaged in the dismantling of Russian federalism, not centralized power and did not deprive the regions political autonomy and financial resources.

A notable exception is Moscow, and Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin owns the largest municipal budget in the world. Mr. Sobyanin has proved itself as a tough, decisive leader who is not only directly involved in combating the crisis, but also coordinates the work of other regions. Meanwhile, Mr. Putin seems more concerned with advocacy issues. He sent Russian military aircraft with medical kits to America and to Italy. Perhaps this was done to remind the Russian voters that Russia is a superpower.

The current crisis has provided new opportunities for Alexei Navalny, the most well-known Russian opposition leader. His regular videos on the YouTube portal “Betrayal by Putin of his people” collected about 2 million hits because people are looking for an alternative to the official “news”. His close ally Anastasia Vasilyeva, a great leader of the independent Union of doctors, conducts its own campaign against the imperfections of the Russian medical system. She received enough attention from society to become a target for the repressive Russian state. 2 April, she tried to bring masks and gloves in a small hospital in the suburbs of Moscow, but at this point the police rudely prevented her to do it. Here’s how it reacted to exercising control in the field of human rights organization “Amnesty international” (Amnesty International): “it is Striking that the Russian authorities seem to be more afraid of criticism than of a deadly pandemic Covid-19”.