On December 16, 2021, the State Duma is going to consider bills on the mandatory presence of a QR code for visiting public places, as well as for travel by rail and air. On November 26, the operational headquarters reported on the complete vaccination of 60.8 million people – about 55% of the adult population of the Russian Federation. To achieve herd immunity, it is necessary to vaccinate 80% of adults, said Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova. But the more actively the authorities try to stimulate vaccination, the more resistance it causes among Russians.
QR codes law sparks protests in regions
The Russian government has prepared two bills to combat the spread of coronavirus. According to one of them, until February 1, it will be possible to get to cafes, shopping centers and cultural institutions only with a negative PCR test result, a QR code on vaccination, a certificate of medical withdrawal or a previous illness. From February 1, the PCR test is excluded from this list.
The second bill assumes that it will be possible to travel on trains and planes between cities and countries only if the listed documents are available, including a negative PCR test. “The proposed solutions are an emergency measure against the background of the difficult situation with the coronavirus,” the government’s website explains.
Caricature by Sergei Elkin
Now the bills are under consideration by the legislative assemblies of the regions. By December 14, they must send their responses to the State Duma, but even before that, a wave of protests against the adoption of the law went off across the regions. The rallies were held in Kamchatka, Yekaterinburg and Kazan. At a popular gathering in Magnitogorsk (Chelyabinsk region), people came out with placards “against the plans of the globalists.” Their posters were crossed out with images of a mask, a syringe and the words “WHO” and “5G”.
Protesters in Chelyabinsk on November 7, together with residents of Magnitogorsk, recorded an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin and FSB head Alexander Bortnikov. “There is massive discrimination and segregation of the Russian people, basic constitutional rights and freedoms have been violated,” the authors of the appeal complained. Without waiting for an answer, on November 24, a group of aggressive protesters broke into the building of the Legislative Assembly of the Chelyabinsk Region.
On this day, the deputies of the region were just supposed to consider the bills of the federal government on QR codes. In the meeting room, Chelyabinsk residents wanted to personally express their attitude to the deputies, but several guards blocked their way. Later, the parliament explained that residents should have made an appointment in advance.
Who is for and who is against
Serious battles are also going on on the information front. Some celebrities with large social media audiences oppose vaccinations and QR codes or deny the dangers of coronavirus. These include, for example, actress Maria Shukshina, frontman of the group “Alisa” Kinchev, actor Yegor Beroev.
Resident of Tambov being vaccinated against coronavirus
On November 24, the chief doctors of 11 Russian hospitals, including those close to the government, Denis Protsenko (a hospital in Kommunarka) and Maryana Lysenko (City Clinical Hospital # 52), turned to the famous “anti-vaccinations” on November 24. “We know your position on the vaccination of Russian citizens against COVID-19,” the doctors write. “Considering how many people read you, we will find time to guide you through the“ red zones. ”Maybe after that you will change your position, and fewer people will die. “
The addressees of the message were the leaders of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and “Fair Russia” Gennady Zyuganov and Sergei Mironov, Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Pyotr Tolstoy (“United Russia”), several actors and musicians. Almost all of them, in response, began to deny that they were anti-vaccines. “In my opinion on the need for vaccination, I proceed from the position of our President Vladimir Putin, who has repeatedly spoken about the voluntariness of such a decision for every citizen,” “Evening Moscow” quotes Pyotr Tolstoy.
Up to a third of all certificates can be fake
Trying to avoid vaccinations and at the same time to please their superiors, many Russians began to buy fake certificates. In the last few days alone, 11 criminal cases on forging certificates were opened in Voronezh, 34 such cases were revealed by the police in the Bryansk region and more than a hundred in the small town of Achinsk in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
The number of purchased certificates can indeed be overwhelming. On November 12, Kommersant reported that a database of counterfeit buyers was put up for sale on the darknet. It allegedly contains data from more than 500 thousand people from the Moscow region alone. And according to the estimates of Aleksey Zakharov, associate professor at the Higher School of Economics, the share of false certificates can reach a third of all certificates.
See also:
.