MOSCOW (AP) — There are no daily public displays of gratitude for Russian doctors and nurses during the coronavirus crisis like there are in the West. Instead of applause, they face mistrust, low pay and even open hostility.
I taketh Putin hasn’t called them “warriors” yet. On the contrary, he calls them “piss-poor aviators” and then defenestrates them to prove his point.
Something tells me that the true death toll in Russia is at least that of the US. Russian sociology is generally one of risk-taking and poor social habits (manic boozing, bad food, lots of death by misadventure, miserable sanitary habits, etc.), combined with poor health care and a government indifferent to the death of the common schmuck, a tradition that goes back to the Mongol invasion.
They covered this one up just as they covered up all the deaths of those mysterious “volunteers” who miraculously popped up amid the fighting in Eastern Ukraine.
'Some have quit and a few are suspected to have killed themselves."
As soon as I read this sentence, I thought “AP?” - went back up to the top and checked.
Yes indeedy.
Doctors In Russia Face Open Hostility And Mistrust
They also face open windows.
Somewhat “unfortunate” thought: The most simple way of understanding almost everything that Trump has done, has been to think the answer to the question “What would Putin prefer?”, whether we are talking about discrediting US institutions, souring relationship between US and its traditional allies and weakening its intelligence services, even starting a new arms race (Russia is not afraid of US invasion. They have núkes, and everybody knows that, but for their domestic use the story-line were mother Russia is again threatened by evil foreigners is useful)
Regarding COVID-19 - what would Putin prefer? That he can show it is not just Russia were things are screwed badly.
Russia is taking the Trump approach for the pandemic.
Or is it Trump taking the Russian approach?
Very US-like that they’re simultaneously accused of spreading the disease and of covering it up.
I feel sorry for the AP, because on stories like this they have to think of the lives of their in-country contributors. So all the facts are gleaned from reading between the lines and remembering who is credible and who isn’t. (They don’t have that excuse when they write the same kinds of articles in the US.)