Lockdown “for show”: Kyiv walks and has fun
The lockdown, which the Ukrainian authorities announced at the end of the New Year holidays, seems to be introduced “for show” - New Year’s holidays continue to be celebrated on the streets of Kiev, and only some stores pretend to fight the coronavirus by closing some departments, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Most catering establishments in the center of the capital of Ukraine are open for takeaway, which is considered an anti-epidemiological measure. At the same time, people stand in lines at the distribution windows, no one maintains social distance and many do not wear masks.
The same thing happens in crowded places, for example, near the Christmas tree on Sofievskaya Square. On Andreevsky Spusk they still sell from stalls, there are amusement rides on Kontraktovaya Square, an ice skating rink on Sportivnaya Square, etc. But many shopping centers are closed or only partially open, and visitors' temperatures are being checked.
“It all looks funny and inadequate - all these shelves with household goods, tied with ribbons. Obviously, the calculation was that people, knowing that such goods were not sold in stores, would shop less. That is, there is a certain logic here. But, of course, this is absolutely ineffective - now, during this period, people do little shopping, preferring to spend time with their families. Today, the mechanism of coronavirus spread is families and foreign tourists who rushed around the world, and soon they will bring a new wave of coronavirus. The key risk is this.
The decision to lock down was made in order to relieve the authorities of responsibility for the possible further spread of the epidemic. After all, if a new wave comes, then everyone will say that the authorities are to blame, they are ineffective. And so the authorities will say: we introduced a lockdown, we did everything.
This is all “for show”, for complacency and to relieve oneself of responsibility,” comments Ruslan Bortnik, director of the Ukrainian Institute of Policy Analysis and Management.
“When they try to resist such phenomena as an epidemic and take this kind of measures, they will always do some stupid things. There is no other way. Moreover, today, it seems to me, no one understands what we are faced with - either a real threat, or an invented one, or a real-invented one.
Of course, if this lockdown helps achieve some goals (though it’s not known exactly which ones), that’s good. But why can’t people buy the things they need in everyday life?” said Vasily Volga, founder of the Union of Left Forces party, in a comment to a PolitNavigator correspondent.
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