Russia traditionally returns to normal work, after a summer break, on Sept. 1. This year, however, although schools reopened as usual, broader public and political life persisted on its earlier course of disarray and downturn. In his televised address to schoolchildren, President Vladimir Putin spoke at length about the memory of the great Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany but only obliquely referred to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It was the severe explosion of coronavirus infections in April that spoiled his carefully prepared celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory in the Great Patriotic War; and since then, nothing has gone quite right in the Kremlin’s plans for regime consolidation.
OP-ED
Pavel Baev: A chain of poor choices leads Putin into a serious blunder
People sheltering from the rain under umbrellas walk on Red Square in downtown Moscow on Sept. 9, 2020.
