Confronting the Challenges of Coronavirus, Russia Sees Its Worldview Vindicated

Nevertheless, the Kremlin sees some effects of the outbreak as validating the correctness of its worldview. The fragility of globalism has been underscored as the international community grows more fractious and the liberal order recedes. The state has reasserted itself as the prime actor on the global scene. International institutions like the World Health Organization have become mere statisticians, and even the EU has taken a back seat to the governments of member states.

The world’s democracies are not faring better in the crisis than nondemocracies. The efforts of states with greater capacity for mobilization, such as China, South Korea, and Japan, are proving to be much more effective than those initiated by states with a looser social organization—like the United States, for example, and European countries that have come to rely on others but now face newly erected border barriers.The weaknesses of the EU have been laid particularly bare. Virtually all known cases of the virus in Russia originated in Europe (Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and Austria are among the most popular holiday destinations for Russian travelers). The lack of a coherent response from Brussels and the reemergence of internal border controls between EU countries has been read in Moscow as more proof that the EU is not coping with the challenges of the modern era.Above all, Russia may interpret recent events as confirming the wisdom of self-reliance in a globalized world driven by individual countries’ self-interests. Russia is now better prepared to deal with an economic crisis than it was in 2008 or 2014: it has larger currency reserves, lower external debt, and a lesser reliance on imports of food and other goods.

It's being sprayed on people from planes

you don't need "social distancing", a face mask or any other latest fashion trend or fashionable new phrase they invent

Do you want to provide any evidence or we just going to willy-nilly spread dangerous misinformation in a time of crisis?

this is just a giant social experiment so people can look intellectual and look serious. it's a facade.

even if you do catch it, it takes 5 days to cure. recovery rate is about 95%.

even if the world is going to end, why would you act all serious and pretentious ? You may as well die laughing and being nice to others.

even if everyone in Britain is going to die, I still won't take it seriously. That's just more motivation to be nicer to others and take life less seriously.

And only you have this knowledge, yes?

Evidence is for losers, right?

It's being sprayed on people from planes

you don't need "social distancing", a face mask or any other latest fashion trend or fashionable new phrase they invent

And when the pandemic is over? Wait for another one for more worldview vindication?

Which bit do you disagree with?

The whole point of looking at a liberal order through the narrow lens of a pandemic. And even in a pandemic, Russia's response seems to be: no coronavirus here, just a coincidental spike in pneumonia.