Russian political and pandemic update: In search of a new normal
Recent reports suggest that Russia’s daily numbers of those newly contaminated with COVID-19 continued to fall slowly but steadily in June and in early July. The recovery ratio in Russia remains high, and the total number of people who have recovered has exceeded the current number of “active cases” by a factor of two. Despite the high and still growing number of contaminated, it looks as though Russians are adjusting to the new environment, and restrictions on some activities have been partially lifted, similar to other countries. Currently, Russian authorities expect that the country will not return to the “pre-virus normality” for another six or seven months, as was recently mentioned by the country’s Minister of Healthcare.
Russia’s relative adjustment to the pandemic can be illustrated by the fact that the country went to the polls to vote on some constitutional amendments. Initially, the referendum was planned for the spring, but the pandemic forced the authorities to postpone the vote. The outcome of the referendum was generally expected and was close to opinion polls conducted by various organizations.
The turnout was rather high (67.97%), and was generally in line with opinion polls. Officially it was announced that 77.92% of those who voted supported the proposed amendments. Overall, it looks as though the majority of Russians have developed a kind of "herd immunity" to domestic political arrangements. In some sense, this immunity can be considered as a kind of tolerance and even confidence in the existing system, as the recent vote confirmed.
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