Absurd Russia: “resuscitating” parade and total support for constitutional changes
Today, two surreal nuances are being observed at the same time in Russia, emphasizing the long-standing hellish absurdity brought to its climax in 2020.
First of all, immediately after the Victory Day parade, on June 24, the coronavirus began to recede! As per official reports, the daily rise has dramatically dropped literally before our eyes.
As of June 26, just 6,800 new cases were reported against yesterday’s 7,113. On the day of the Victory Parade, it was 7,176, while June 23 it was 7,425, while on June 22 the report said it was 7,600.
Wow! What a tremendous success! What a pace to come out of the incidence plateau, which was artificially kept for some a month and a half within the daily rise limits from 8,500 to 9,000! Perhaps, the parade had some resuscitating effect on the nation!
What is more interesting is the situation we’re observing in the first day of the national vote on amendments to the Russian Constitution which will allow Putin to stay in power pretty much forever. The event has already been mocked across social networks, given the primitive, unthinkable conditions of self-styled polling stations, not to mention total disregard for vote privacy and measures to prevent vote count manipulation.
Throughout the day, through a number of open sources, spins are being thrown into the media space about tentative voting results. Given how that voting is conducted, this isn’t surprising. I wouldn’t even be surprised to see how wind gusts blow ballots out of the boxes and carry them across the field. But let’s get back to those spins…
The alleged “leaks” claim 72.9% of the voters supported the amendments to the Constitution, with 26.6% against! However, it remains unclear where the remaining 0.5% went as no third option of abstaining was offered on ballots.
At the same time, the turnout has already reached 50%, and growing. That is, all eligible population of the Russian Federation will have voted before July 1, perhaps even in the next two days, who knows? And this is also very strange, because with such a turnout, we were supposed to see huge lines of those willing to cast their vote at the “polling stations” which in many places are just unequipped outdoor areas with some benches or tree stumps put up. What is this about then? Invisible voters?
After initial spins emerged, all kinds of “experts” and sociologists started popping up on various biased platforms, assuring the public of the veracity of numbers voiced in “leaks”.
Well, this is rather strange as ahead of the voting day, a number of highly-acclaimed and experienced sociological research organizations reported the opposite — total lack of support for constitutional changes. The Levada Center reported that only 25% of Russians were ready to support the amendments.
But today, “leaks”, echoed by “experts”, claim everything’s fine: more than 70% of Russians support the changes!
Actually, everything has to be fine in Wonderland! The country has been practically healed by the sacred Victory Parade before rejoicing in a massive and joint impulse to go cast votes for constitutional amendments.
George Orwell would’ve probably light up another one, observing the latest Russian lies, given their epic scale which even he could never have imagined.
