It’s already possible to draw some intermediate results and say that March turned out to be monstrous (and indeed the whole of the current year, what really). Moreover, if earlier hell always came locally, for example, in unhappy Iraq, now it concerns each of us. Yes, bombs have not yet fallen on us, but the lifestyle has already been called into question. Critics and supporters of flat land will object to this: for Russia, the pandemic is too small, if we look at the numbers, then the number of people infected with the virus does not even reach one hundredth of a percent of the population. That's right, you can’t argue.
But, firstly, such figures and dynamics are due to the active actions of our authorities. From the very beginning of the spread of the virus, the authorities took all necessary measures to stop the threat: day and night the government gathered, headed by Prime Minister Mishustin, work was going on in the State Duma, where a number of laws were passed over this short period that allowed the executive branch to effectively take measures to combat with the spread of imported infection. And secondly, citizens themselves must follow simple rules on the non-proliferation of coronavirus.
These days, the State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and the relevant committee discussed the issue of preparing amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation regarding toughening the punishment for violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules. As a result, a bill was prepared and introduced, providing for non-compliance with sanitary and epidemiological rules, negligent mass infection, a very serious punishment: fines of up to 1 million rubles or restriction of liberty for up to three years.
And if people die due to criminal sloppiness, then this threatens with imprisonment for up to seven years.
“The proposals that we make in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are primarily aimed at ensuring that citizens who are not responsible enough for others understand that if the health of those around them is harmed, they will be punished. And we believe that this punishment should be harsh enough, because we have many cases when they leave hospitals, quarantine, start shopping, salons, relatives, acquaintances and harm the health of those nearby, ”said Volodin .
Some especially freedom-loving citizens will be indignant - again, again, a totalitarian state is stepping on their freedoms. But, following this logic, let's allow such citizens not to abide by the Criminal Code. And why - if free, then you can freely kill and rob, right? Since exposing citizens to mortal danger is exactly the same crime, punishment for it must be appropriate.
In a situation where before our eyes the horrors of hospitals in Italy and Spain, frivolity should be equated with a crime.
What, in fact, is planned to be done on March 31 - it is on this day that the consideration of this bill is scheduled.
It should be noted that by the second reading the bill will be supplemented by sanctions for the dissemination of false information about the coronavirus. And compliance with information hygiene today is no less important than normal. For the second month we have been witnessing how, like mushrooms, after rain, a variety of “virological experts” crawled out with “reliable” information about tens of thousands of sick and full freezers of corpses. To allow such fakes to spread among the population - and, as you know, in crisis situations it is quite easy to warm up a panic - is a direct threat to national security. There really should be no jokes.
At the very beginning of the text, I wrote that one of the main barriers to the coronavirus is people. Responsible, strong and not amenable to panic. If we can mobilize, we can easily turn off the Italian dangerous path. Today everything depends on us, and so far as we can realize our responsibility for what is happening with all of us, so quickly we will put an end to the pandemic.
For the sake of yourself, your loved ones and your country.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.