re: #89 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Their health system is incapable of dealing with even a mild outbreak, so yeah, fuck it. It will take a lot of pressure off the state pension system…

It looks more like Putin wants to shove the blame for any bad results onto the relatively powerless pet governors of the regions. He’s easing federal restrictions, but saying that the regions can impose stricter rules if necessary. The regions are run by handpicked unelected governors, many parachuted in from other parts of the country, who have no resources or knowledge to do any of this.

If you look at his history, Putin is extremely risk-adverse, and only wants to be the bearer of good news. Like Trump, he’s only good at dealing with self-generated crises far away, and deals with them by blowing them up, locking them up, lying about them, and/or blackmailing them. These don’t work with COVID, amazingly enough. And, like Trump, he’s being yelled at by oligarchs to put the serfs back to work.

Oh, by the way, at least two Russian ventilators have caught fire in hospitals and killed at least six people. These were the same model of the ones that the US government bought from Russia last month in that hyped up shipment.