Tag: Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made his first public appearance in weeks of coronavirus lockdown to celebrate the country’s national day.

He used the Russia Day holiday to promote a controversial reform of the constitution which could keep him in office until 2036.

Mr Putin, 67, has dominated Russia for the past 20 years whether as president or prime minister.

Moscow lifted lockdown curbs this week despite a huge number of infections.

But there was confusion as the mayor of the capital, Sergei Sobyanin, urged people to stay at home during Friday’s holiday and another on 24 June, which marks victory in World War Two.

About 510,000 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Russia, the third-highest number of cases in the world after the US and Brazil. Russia has recorded 6,705 deaths amid accusations of under-reporting by the authorities.

Where has President Putin been?

His last public appearance was on 9 May when he attended a Victory Day ceremony – the traditional parade has been postponed until 24 June. Since then he had been working from his country residence outside Moscow.

Flanked by allies, he attended an open-air flag-raising ceremony in western Moscow on Friday.

In his speech, he urged Russians to turn out and vote for the constitutional reform in a referendum on 1 July, saying he was certain that an “absolute majority” of Russians backed it.

The reform would effectively allow him to stand for two more terms as president after his current six-year term expires in 2024.

Putin critics have accused the authorities of trying to bribe Russians to turn out for the vote.

The city of Moscow, for example, is planning to hand out shopping vouchers to those who vote, justifying the offer as an incentive to boost consumer demand after lockdown.

Georgy Alburov, an ally of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, said the mayor of Moscow had failed to support small businesses during the lockdown but could “find plenty of money if he has to lure in people to ‘polling stations’ to affirm Tsar Putin”, Reuters news agency reports.

Russia, like many countries, has been suffering acute economic hardship because of its lockdown, which began at the end of March.

Amid rising unemployment, there have been signs of growing disillusionment with the Kremlin.

Source: bbc.com

Russian President Vladimir Putin says that from Tuesday the nationwide coronavirus lockdown will be eased and businesses will go back to work.

He said the country’s “non-working period” imposed to curb the virus had lasted six weeks.

The easing of restrictions will affect all sectors of the economy, Mr Putin said, but some regions may keep tighter controls if necessary.

Russia now has the third-highest number of confirmed infections worldwide.

In the last 24 hours it reported a record daily rise of 11,656 cases, bringing the official total to 221,344.

That means Russia now has more confirmed cases than both Italy and the UK. Only Spain and the US have reported more infections.

According to official figures, 2,009 people in Russia have died from the virus. But some question the low figure, and believe the tally is far higher.

What did President Putin say?

In a televised address, the Russian leader announced an end to six weeks of countrywide restrictions, which he said had allowed the country to prepare its health system and save “many thousands of lives”.

“Starting from tomorrow, May 12, the national period of non-working days will be over for all sectors of the economy,” Mr Putin said. Individual regions however will be able to keep rules in place if needed.

Large public events remain banned and people must still follow “strict sanitation demands”, but it is in everyone’s interest for the economy “to return to normal quickly”, he said, adding that construction and farming should be among the first industries to restart.

The address comes just days after the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, extended the capital’s lockdown until 31 May.

Though construction and industrial workers must now return to work in the city, everyone must wear face masks and gloves in shops and on public transport.

Residents still cannot leave home unless to shop, work or walk the dog, and must have a digital permit to travel.

Moscow is the epicentre of Russia’s outbreak, accounting for more than half the country’s official confirmed case and death totals.

Mr Sobyanin has however estimated that the capital may have more than 300,000 infections – about three times its confirmed tally of 115,909.

Over the weekend, Russia was forced to cancel its annual World War II Victory Day Parade due to the outbreak.

Source: bbc.com

When President Vladimir Putin announced a paid holiday for the month of April to keep Russians home and prevent the coronavirus from spreading, many small business owners braced themselves.

How would they keep to the president’s promise of paying employees while they were shut down?

The small furniture manufacturing company where Natalia Garnova works has told her she will receive only half her monthly salary of 40,000 rubles ($544).

“I do not know how I will feed my children tomorrow!” the 41-year-old told AFP.

“This month, we have no orders… We already know that several people will be laid off.”

Lawmakers are due Tuesday to table legislation to help small and medium-sized businesses, but for many it could already be too late.

According to the Center for Strategic Research, a think tank close to the government, about a third of companies it surveyed forced employees to take leave without pay from the first week of the non-working period.

Nearly half of the thousand companies surveyed reduced wages, 16 percent announced redundancies and nine percent anticipated bankruptcy this year.

The non-working period was initially introduced by Putin on March 28 and extended on April 2 to the end of the month as part of tightening measures to slow COVID-19.

Russia on Monday reported 2,558 new infections, its biggest daily increase to date, bringing its total tally to 18,328 cases and 148 deaths.

The fallout could see the number of unemployed rise from 2.5 to 8 million this year, according to Russia’s Audit Chamber.

Difficult to survive

Some self-employed Russians, like 29-year-old personal trainer Olga Novikova, have already seen their incomes vanish.

“The longer it lasts, the more difficult it becomes to survive,” she told AFP.

She cannot give lessons in gyms since they were closed earlier this month.

Coaching online is not an attractive option, Novikova says, because of competition from any number of free alternatives.

For Russians whose purchasing power has already been hit over recent years, the economic situation looks set to become even more precarious.

The outlook is especially bleak for the nearly two-thirds of Russians who according to a survey last year by the Levada polling agency, have no savings.

In an effort to support entrepreneurs, the government has rolled out tax cuts and offered deferred payments. The central bank has released funds for banks so they can offer cheap loans to small businesses.

But Igor Nikolayev, director of the Institute for Strategic Analysis of FBK Grant Thornton Russia, said the “government measures should be on a bigger scale and better targeted.

“There should be direct support for the citizens, those who suffer most from the situation,” he added.

Economic crisis fears

“The state has money,” he said, citing the sovereign wealth fund worth $160 billion, which the Kremlin seems reluctant to tap.

“If a company has no income, how can wages be paid? They must be subsidised,” Nikolayev said.

Without government intervention, Russia faces an economic crisis similar to the one that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, he said.

“GDP fell by 14.5 percent in 1992. The Russian economy could fall to the same level,” he added.

On April 8, Putin asked regional governors to introduce coronavirus measures that would not do unnecessary damage to the economy.

Beauty salons and hairdressers reopened in the Far East the next day. But Top Gun, a barber shop in Vladivostok run by Denis Lukoyanov, is still struggling.

With only one customer allowed at a time, keeping afloat is “almost impossible,” he told AFP.

Political scientist Konstantin Kalachev said the situation is perilous for the president, who is tasked with safeguarding the health of Russians as well as the economy.

If the coronavirus fallout turns out to be worse than expected, Kalachev said, “Putin will be seen as the one who

misjudged the situation.”