The people and parties are united: why the State Duma did not consider the introduction of QR codes

In addition to the fact that the country is not technically ready for end-to-end control of codes, various political forces have united against an undertaking that is unpleasant for the people.

Yelena Fedorova, Natalia Seibil

Today the country breathed freely - the law on QR codes, hated by many, will not be considered by the State Duma. The good idea - to spur the population to vaccinations - turned for the Russian authorities a surge of such discontent throughout the country that the Kremlin shuddered. It has been a long time since the deep-seated people have spoken so openly and hostilely. If some of Navalny's supporters took to the streets again, few would pay attention to them, and the tactics of dealing with them have long been well developed - the tougher, the better. Kicked the wheel of an FSB car - go to prison for 2 years, went out into the street with a poster - and there you are already accepted. But these are people who are not close to the authorities. What began in Kazan after the introduction of codes in public transport, the authorities did not like at all. At first, the adoption of the law was postponed for a month, and now they refuse to consider it at all.

According to Ilya Grashchenkov, President of the Center for the Development of Regional Policy (CRDP) , there are now two groups in power. One of them is in charge of politics, and the second is in charge of health care:

- The government did not care about politics, they decided that it was necessary and went to explain. And those in charge of politics realized that if this law was introduced now, it would be up to the first frozen grandmother, who would be dropped off the bus in the Yakut steppe at a temperature of minus fifty. We decided that it would be necessary to resist this staff.

Here and the speaker Volodin spoke in Telegram with his post, which received 600 thousand comments.

- And they wrote to him 600 thousand: go to train station. with your codes. He represented this opinion and became one of the opponents of crazy QR-coding, - Ilya Grashchenkov notes bitterly.

If only communists opposed QR codes, then all of their protests would simply be called marginalized speeches. But all of a sudden, New People, from whom no one expected it, entered the controversy. The "new" managed not only to stigmatize the government, but also to remind that such an initiative could lead to the ruin of the tourism industry, if citizens have to show the codes before buying tickets for trains and airplanes - this is in a country where no more than 40% have taken root population. If the law had been passed, no one would have gone anywhere. As a consequence, the transport companies would go bankrupt. And in general - all this is unconstitutional.

The winners were Vyacheslav Volodin, who seemed to have long been divorced from the people, and the New People, who, since their creation, did not shine with their proximity to wide strata of voters.

As you know, defeat is always an orphan, but victory always has many fathers. In this case, since we are talking about parties, mothers.

- The cancellation of QR codes is a result of the fact that the government heard the Just Russia party, which from the very beginning opposed this law, said that it was a violation of the constitutional rights of citizens. The government heard this position. "Fair Russia" (Spravedlivaya Rossia - editor's note) during this time has collected several hundred different proposals , - says political scientist, head of the Bakster group agency Dmitry Gusev.

On the other hand, since no one in the country was ready for total checks of QR codes, there was not a single party that would not speak out against this topic. It could not be applied in any form. The introduction of control would take months, during which the people rebelled, and the political ratings of everyone, from the ruling party to the president, fell. Political scientist Alexander Kynev believes that the idea itself was initially more propaganda-psychological, so that people would get scared and go to get vaccinated:

- The bill, of course, contributed to what was passed back, but it seems to me that it was predictable. I don't think there is any personal merit in this. I think it has affected the society as a whole. The public reaction was unanimous. I do not know of a single opposition force that would have expressed something different on this topic.

Doctor of Political Science, Professor Yuliy Nisnevich reminds that such a problem exists all over the world - unvaccinated and vaccinated people find themselves in unequal conditions. But unlike Europe, where QR codes began to be introduced after half of the population and more took root, in Russia they decided in this way to push the unvaccinated majority to vaccination.

- Imagine what will happen in Moscow if they start checking all passengers at the entrance to the metro? Such will be a wave of indignation! Moreover, quite open. Or the same electric trains on which almost two million people come to Moscow every day. Among them, by the way, there are not so many vaccinated - about 50%. And the consequences will be, including economic ones - people will not be able to go to work, they will not be able to do anything, - says Yuliy Nisnevich.

The excitement of the majority on any topic - in this case, on the topic of codes, is not needed by anyone in power. That is why they decided not to uncover the national cudgel for driving people into a vaccinated paradise. And the opposition again united with the authorities.

"If the propaganda campaign for vaccination has not yielded results, you should not split society into different parts, but unite. Allow all people to live a fulfilling life, vaccinated or not vaccinated. We are glad that we are a constructive opposition and that our proposals were heard by the government. This is our joint work with the government”, - says Dmitry Gusev.

What about vaccination? Apparently, they will act as always. The federal authorities, realizing the explosiveness of the topic, gave up the freedom of action to introduce restrictive measures to the regions. Let them declare quarantines, isolation and other non-working days. As the situation with QR codes showed, this decision was far-sighted. Pyotr Kiryan, head of the Social Research Laboratory at the Institute for Regional Problems, says:

- I think, if we talk about the bill on the introduction of QR codes in transport, it was decided that at the regional level within cities or regions, local authorities will find a form to control or restrict movement, if necessary, for those who are not vaccinated or have not been ill. At the level of national regulations for air traffic and railways, most likely, it was decided to think over and study the issue of how to do this in order to be enforceable.

And now it is not prohibitions that are enforceable, but recommendations, as, for example, Rospotrebnadzor is doing. He does not prohibit flights abroad, but encourages citizens to spend the New Year at home. Whether the citizens will obey is a big question.

Only one thing remains unclear - how vaccination will be promoted in the country. The government cannot present any reasonable plan. The incidence rate as it was thirty thousand a day, and remains. As a thousand people died a day, they continue to die.

The victory of the will of the people over reason may turn out to be Pyrrhic.

Meanwhile, the time has come for New Year's shopping. The people, who forgot about all the measures against the coronavirus, rushed to shopping centers and markets. Masks? Vaccinations? Social distance? Don't tell me! We need to buy a toy for a child here, and you are fussing with your covid nonsense...