If you are well acquainted with Russia, you will also know this: there are two Russia - the one where 146 million people live, and that its imaginary version, which is drawn by the Western media.
Both exist in parallel universes. That is why Russians who are fluent in English, usually with surprise and horror react to what they write in the foreign press about their homeland.
Now, as expected, the measures that Russia is taking in the fight against COVID-19 are used as weapons in the mythical "information war." The point is: when the Western media cover the events in this country, it is usually not so much journalism as activist activity - therefore, attention is paid only to those Russians who fit into their “line”.
For this reason, Alexei Navalny is portrayed as the “leader of the opposition,” although there is no single opposition in Russia and other opposition members have never chosen him as their leader. The picture becomes even more absurd in light of the fact that, according to all-Russian public opinion polls, Navalny’s support level is one to two percent - which is less than indicators, for example, of Pavel Grudinin, who by and large is not familiar to readers of Western media. Grudinin is a former candidate for the post of president of the Russian Federation from the Communist Party, and when Russian publications wrote that he was blocked from entering the State Duma last year, the press in the United States and Great Britain ignored his burdens, presumably because of fears that it goes against the line they are promoting.
To better understand the strange symbiosis of Navalny and the Western media, you need to look at the maneuvers around the coronavirus pandemic.
Guided by a desire to find a way to criticize the official response to the virus in Russia, some scribes attached themselves to the Alliance of Doctors, a tiny but influential, motley “union” of medical workers closely associated with Navalny. So closely connected that he, it must be said, is headed by the former personal ophthalmologist of the opposition Anastasia Vasiliev.
On the other hand, the activities of the largest union of medical workers in Russia, the Professional Union of Health Workers of the Russian Federation, are not covered at all by Western media, although its number is about three million people.
Violation of the rules
First a disclaimer: there is nothing wrong with a politically active union. It’s even good - like any sincere desire to help the medical system, which is often critically deficient and can be completely overwhelmed by the coronavirus epidemic.
After almost thirty years of hyper-neoliberal economy - initially promoted by the West - the working conditions of doctors in Russian state hospitals in general leave much to be desired. Moreover, many hospitals in the country need serious help to achieve reasonable, acceptable standards - you can’t argue with that.
Therefore, the point here is not about trade unions as such and not that there are no problems in the Russian health care system. A lot of them. This is a group of activists posing as “a union” who, in fact, are not trying to somehow actively improve the lives of doctors. Instead of really helping, Vasilieva and the company seem to be more interested in flirting with the West.
On April 2, Vasilieva and eleven of her colleagues went to the Novgorod region in order to allegedly pass on the essential protective equipment to overworked doctors. Vasilieva’s group violated strict self-isolation rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in order to deliver boxes of materials - masks, respirators and protective suits - to two local hospitals. The money for it was raised as part of a new project called the All-Russian Trade Union Medical Inspectorate, the purpose of which, as stated, is to provide doctors with vital materials.
However, at the entrance to the city of Okulovka, Novgorod Region, the convoy of the “Alliance of Doctors” of four cars, three people each (like “social distance”), was taken to the local police department, where they were kept all night.
Is it really because Vasilyeva is the most vivid critic of the response of the Russian authorities to coronavirus? Well, you might have this opinion if you rely on Western media to cover the events in Russia. In fact, the story here is completely different.
Vasilieva left her home in Moscow, where strict quarantine is now set up and more than 6,000 infected with Sovid-19 are reported (at the time of publication of the Russian-language version of the article - 7822. - RT ), under the pretext of providing medical care. Since she was not registered in the Novgorod region, she understood that she was breaking the law even before she crossed the border of the region.
It turns out that Vasilieva was fully aware that she would be detained. This is evidenced by the composition of the team of her comrades, which included: a lawyer, a foreign journalist and three cameramen, and not a fully equipped group of doctors of the union.
In addition to violating the quarantine rules, she was also accused of disobeying the requirements of police officers - she refused to get out of the car and proceed to the police station to draw up a protocol. The Alliance of Doctors believes that her detention was "real fascism."
If her goal was to provide the hospital with personal protective equipment, then she could safely do it without breaking the law and without arranging scenes. She just needed to transfer money to local volunteers or arrange special delivery. But it was obvious that the point was to promote.
In addition, in his personal blog, an ardent supporter of the Alliance of Doctors, Alexei Navalny, published an EMERCOM document that lists the problems of medical institutions in Russian regions. This PDF file contains detailed information on the problems that exist in many regions from mild to quite severe - and sheds light on the difficulties that Russia faces in its fight against coronavirus. And what about the Novgorod region, where did Vasiliev go? No deficit was noted there. Apparently, these activists felt that cities like Tomsk, Arkhangelsk and Astrakhan, which seem to really need help urgently, are too far away.
Subsequently, the chief doctor of the Borovichi hospital (this is one of those two hospitals to which Vasilyeva decided to provide personal protective equipment) recorded a video in which he said that he did not know the source of the origin of these masks.
“Anastasia arrived from the city of Moscow, where, as we know, mass quarantine measures are carried out regarding the infection of COVID-19, without any precautions. At the same time, humanitarian aid in the form of medical masks was allegedly brought with them. Again, it is not clear from which these masks of the warehouses, as they delivered without any precautions, had neither certificates, most likely, nor registrations, ”said Vadim Ladyagin.
- AGN "Moscow"
Another head physician from the Novgorod region, Natalya Usatova from the Valdai Central District Hospital, told the 53 News regional portal that local doctors did not understand Vasilyeva’s actions.
“Even if we did not have enough means of special protection, then this could be done differently. This is a provocation, there is no other name. We, doctors, did not understand this trick. Even we do not allow ourselves to move around the region, ”Usatova said. - After all, it was possible to clarify with the minister what our need is, to involve volunteers in this work. The entire process in the region to combat coronavirus is controlled by the Minister and the Governor personally. ”
Una voce
Despite these facts, Vasilieva immediately used her arrest as an excuse to attract foreign media.
Vasilieva gave an interview to the Associated Press, which hastened to headline her article, “In the midst of a pandemic, Russia is detaining activists who tried to help the hospital.” She told the news agency that the purpose of the arrest was “to break her.”
After that, Vasilieva talked to The Moscow Times, which, despite the name, is not Russian, but the Dutch media. She told him that she allegedly just took over the work of the government.
The New York Times also picked up the story of Vasilyeva. From the title of their article, it follows that she was detained after she questioned the official figures on the number of patients - and not a word about the illegal and dangerous violation of the self-isolation regime.
The Doctors Alliance also hastened to make contact with the US state-owned media. And the fact that Radio Liberty * depicted Vasilyev as a heroine is not surprising.
But perhaps the most impressive thing here is that Vasilieva loves to take foreign journalists on her trips. Stephen Deriks, journalist of the well-known in the Netherlands newspaper NRC Handelsblad, went with her to Okulovka. According to Deriks, Vasiliev was traveling without the necessary documents. Presumably, she simply forgot to take them with her.
In January, the Doctors Alliance went on a trip with another Western journalist, Mark Bennetts of The Times. Vasilyeva brought him to the Ural town of Bogdanovich in the Sverdlovsk region, where - what a coincidence - an episode with the police also arose. Before her arrival, Vasilyeva made a public statement about the intention of the staff of the local hospital to go on strike in connection with unsatisfactory working conditions.
In fact, there was no strike of the medical staff - perhaps only four laundry employees who arrived, admittedly, are in a really deplorable state. In addition, according to the hospital’s management and representatives of the regional ministry of health, there were no complaints from doctors. Even the video of Navalny shows that the size of the group of dissatisfied workers is small.
Obviously, the hospital in Bogdanovich, like many other medical institutions in Russia (especially in remote and less prosperous cities), needs to be repaired. The Russian health care system needs to be thoroughly refined - no doubt; but it is not clear why the Alliance of Doctors (if this is really a trade union whose task is to pay attention to the problems of the healthcare system) does not go on trips with any of the Russian journalists.
The decision to take Bennetts on Vasilyeva’s trip to the Urals may suggest that the Alliance of Doctors is not a trade union, but a means of informing foreigners about how bad things are in Russia.
How does an article written in English, not Russian, published in the British edition, should help improve healthcare in the Urals, thousands of kilometers from London? Especially since the Times materials are paid and available only to subscribers. What is the likely number of Russians (at least in Moscow - what can we say about the Sverdlovsk region) who would have caught the eye of this material?
I didn’t notice the elephant
There are huge and recognized medical unions in Russia. Why are Western media pushing forward a tertiary small group of activists?
As in many countries, in Russia there are a number of trade unions that fight for the rights of their members. Of course, they are useful for workers and provide strong protection against illegal dismissal and abuse at the workplace.
Generally, a union is stronger when it has more people. The wider the base, the stronger the union in collective labor disputes, the more effective the strike, the larger the fund to pay for legal assistance. In addition, the larger the union as a whole, the more political power it has and the more it is talked about in the press. Why, then, in the Western media about the "Alliance of Doctors" and their small (as he himself admits) number of members they speak much more than about the Trade Union of Health Workers of the Russian Federation (PRZRF, or in English - HWURF) - one of the largest branch trade unions in the country ?
The PRZRF has an estimated three million members and is a member of the European Federation of Public Service Unions, which brings together unions from across the continent to influence European policies and decisions. Moreover, Russian doctors participate in the federation not purely symbolically - one of the vice presidents of EPSU is PRZRF chairman Mikhail Kuzmenko.
A quick search of English-language resources on Google for “HWURF” returns almost nothing. But the Doctors Alliance query will give you thousands of results. Why? The answer is simple: The Doctors Alliance is an activist group supported by FBK ** Navalny, and this satisfies the line of reporting on Russia that foreign media love to cultivate.
Last month, a number of these media outlets, such as The Washington Post, NPR, The Times, and The New Yorker, declared the group an “independent union,” and were even able to fool Human Rights Watch European Union director Lotte Leicht.
In fairness, it should be noted that some publications sometimes directly stated the anti-government mood of the “trade union”. An article by The New York Times dated May 25, 2019 mentioned the relationship of this group with Navalny, whom she called "Russia's main opposition politician." Of course, Navalny himself retweeted this compliment.
What is the Alliance of Doctors? And who is Anastasia Vasilieva?
A quick search in Yandex (in Russian) will quickly reveal a lot of dirt about Vasilieva and her PR-loving doctors. We will not repeat it here. In the end, the article is not about her, but about coverage in the Western media. We confine ourselves to known facts.
In 2017, Alexei Navalny was attacked by dousing him with brilliant green. This nasty attack was an unpleasant moment for himself, but a favorable moment for the ophthalmologist who treated him - Vasilieva. She herself said that at the beginning of 2018 her mother, who worked at a medical research institute in Moscow, was fired, and Vasilyeva turned to Navalny for help. He offered the services of his lawyers, and his mother was reinstated. This marked the beginning of a new collaboration. They began to work together, trying to bring the Alliance of Doctors to the all-Russian level.
However, the work of this "union" does not seem to be of any interest to real doctors. According to a May 2019 article in The Economist, the Alliance has just 500 members. The organization’s website speaks of 31 branches throughout the country, but apparently there are not enough volunteers, because the regional manager for fifteen of these branches is one person, Anastasia Tarabrina: from Kamchatka to Crimea and from Kaliningrad to Magadan. Between the last, for a minute, on the road to go 11 thousand kilometers. There is no real union on the planet that would expect travels at such distances from the "local organizer". And this is a clear example of why the Alliance of Doctors does not bring practical benefits within the country.
Not noticed in Russia
Given the constant curtsies towards the West, a person who does not closely monitor the activities of this organization will be forgiven for believing that the Alliance of Doctors has already conquered Russia and is now fighting for the attention of the international community. But it is clear that this, of course, is not so. Although Western correspondents in Moscow are ready to come to Navalny and Vasilyeva at the click of a finger, there is little interest from the Russian media.
While foreign journalists are eager to write whole sheets about Vasilyeva and her fellow activists, the Russian press seems to recall them only when they arrange provocations. Even the opposition media, such as Echo of Moscow and Novaya Gazeta, seem indifferent. For example, only two paragraphs were written about the recent lawsuit against Vasilyeva on the Echo website, although it appears quite often on the corresponding radio station. For comparison, The New York Times article on her detention - 29 paragraphs.
What about ordinary Russians on the Internet? For all its carefully polished online presence, with those who ask questions (especially about the financial side of things), the Doctors Alliance does not stand on ceremony. So, one user of VKontakte, after a request to name suppliers and show receipts, was blacklisted.
- We will help doctors, send money!
- Show checks, name suppliers
- You are blacklisted at pic.twitter.com/F5KdilcM8y
Despite the dubious nature of their work and the lack of support within Russia, Navalny and Vasiliev achieved what they wanted: approval and popularity abroad. The fate of the union has attracted attention around the world.
Former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, a former journalist for US state media, expressed Vasilyeva’s support on Twitter, hinting that in April 2020 she was detained for questioning Russian official COVID-19 statistics.
Amnesty International, a UK-based nongovernmental organization, was also baffled by deciding that the Russian authorities "are more afraid of criticism than the deadly COVID-19 pandemic." Amnesty's article overlooked many important circumstances of the case, distorting the picture in favor of Vasilyeva.
Despite the fact that the organization, in fact, is not known in Russia and among Russian speakers, it gained global fame in the English-speaking community. With scanty support in the medical community and the lack of real achievements, the Alliance of Doctors and Vasilyev won. The Western press eats from their palm, this was the real goal. And again I will say: Russia is two. One is a country in which 146 million people live. Another is a fantasy presented to an audience of Western media.
* Radio Liberty / Radio Free Europe - mass media recognized as a foreign agent by decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation dated 05.12.2017.
** The Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK) is included in the register of NPOs performing the functions of a foreign agent, by decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation of 09.10.2019.