Russia’s Challenge: Riding the Tiger of Discontent and Covid-19
Medical internationalism is cool and saves lives but it needs to be marketed
Russia has made impressive gains in developing its military’s capacities and infrastructure. Its weapons and soldiers gained practical experience in Syria. It has modernized its fighting power and now it is safe to say that Russia is safe from an external invasion, as long as it remains on guard. The deeper issue is, the deeper enemy, is the lurking problem within.
We heared for such a long time about Russia’s demographic crisis, at how Russia has no future, that its youth is declining, and that in the future, Russians will gradually disappear from the face of the cold earth. But, not only has alcoholism been on the decline in Russia, but also, most recently, the western media has been busy showing streets full of teenagers protesting in favor of Alexander Navalny. The doomsayers must be dissapointed, but they will never claim to have been wrong, and they will seek to rapidly deflect criticism.
Russia has made its citizens proud in Russia’s returning to a great power position, evidenced by its coming to the defense of the Syrian Arab Republic, as well as in its actions in other areas and regions of the world. But, while Russia reformed its military, it did not reform its youth. It doesn’t have a message of inspiration that could inspire youth. Youth is adverse to corruption. Youth is also vulnerable to manipulation by external factors that do not have the best of the people in mind necessarily.
Despite some mishaps with the lockdown and Covid-19, Russia produced a worthwhile vaccine, Sputnik-V, that has already been sold to Bolivia, Mexico, and other countries. Russia is gradually becoming a global power in medicine. While the US is seeing its population gradually dying off (none of the demographic doomsayers regarding Russia ever gave us a realistic assessment on what could happen in the United States at a time of an health emergency at a country where high quality medicine is expensive. Europe is struggling to find enough vaccines to vaccinate its own population. This is a tremendous soft power that Russia finally has. It is not a militaristic power. Of course, Russia will never get credit from the imperialist powers for providing vaccines to the third world. But, there is a lot more that can be done in explaining to the Russian youth how Russia is doing wonders in the medical area. The most convincing argument would come not from the Russian government itself, whom some or many of the youth view with skepticism and cynicism, but from Bolivian youth, Mexican youth, African youth, and so on.
Cuban doctors holding the flag of Cuba
Does anyone truly believe, in all due respect, that Navalny could have pushed for such headway in the medical field so as to produce Sputnik-V? Does anyone truly hold, and this applies to critics and enemies of Russia, who dislike it for justified and less justified reasons, that if Russia would have really wanted to exterminate Navalny, it would have done an half-assed job?
Russia faces big challenges. Its economy is outdated. Russia may be good in managing conflict, but it lacks a long-term vision. It needs to improve relations with the regions.The strength of Shanghai in China has been to redistribute funds it has earned in multiple areas in the periphery. Shanghai is wealthy, but the key principle can apply to Russia. It needs to find a way to make public investments in the regions, whether through the establishment of educational centers, medical facilities or in other areas. The regionalism issue is too complex to be addressed now. In the short run, Russia can hire Chinese companies to connect the country so that mobility could ensue and fresh produce can make its way quickly to other regions. Significantly, Russia has become an agricultural powerhouse and can provide high-quaity botique agricultural products to buyers in Asia and Europe.
Russia would also be wise to use its tremendous advantage and prestige it has accured through making its vaccine available globally, to attract medical students from all over the world to Russia and to develop transnational medical projects and mutual investments with hospitals and medical research centers in other countries. Russia could do more to utilize its softpower to attract investments or at least mutual exchange of goods. There is no reason why, at the minimum, Russia could open several more medical schools and attract a large number of qualified and eager students from around the world. This is also true in light of the fact that more students now than ever before are interested in pursuing medicine or a career medical fields.
There is also no reason why Russia should not be able to establish an Erasmus of sorts- with the opportunity for Russian students to study in a vaccine recepient for a year for free. Many Russian students would probably not mind studying Spanish or Portuguese for a year or even attending a medical school in their new adoptive country. True, this may mean that they will not come back or that they will come back differently. But times have changed and closing the doors as the Soviet Union did is not attractive to many people.
Russia has long been called a petro-state incapable of innovation, but it has now become a pioneer in the medical field. But Russia also needs to inspire its youth, to make the youth responsible shareholders in the future of society. The youth wants to be taken seriously, and has a lot of new ideas worth listening true. It is true too that the youth can be easily manipulated and can be deceived by external and artifical images. There will always be an element, big or small, of people, young or old, who would like to serve as the west’s accomplices in bringing down their country, unbeknownst to them. The youth is impressed by actions. Imagine if Russia were to make major investments in the medical field, or in education, from some of the profits made by the vaccine, and if a new project is to capture the imagination of the young people. Would that have any effect?
Imagine what a billboard campaign, Cuba-style, highlighting Russia’s pride as a producer of a vaccine to the world, do to the public confidence of some. Sure, some signs would be vandalized, and western media outlets would mock “Russian propaganda” efforts, but the conditions in the leading western countries is far worse than the situation is Russia, and none of them has mastered the ability to provide a vaccine to others, let alone get their own house in order.
*Comment on a policy proposal: a Russian-Sputnik V recipient “Erasmus” program, inserted later, updated on 31.1.2021 19:44 EET
