On February 20, a small eight-thousand Ukrainian town Novy Sanzhary attracted attention of international media. It’s all the fault of the clashes and protests initiated by citizens opposing return of Ukrainians from Chinese Wuhan to stay for two-week quarantine. Facilities were provided by the local military medical centre. Citizens were afraid of the possible outbrake of coronavirus, which has not been registered in Ukraine yet.
The Ukrainians were twice checked before the flight for any signs of virus, and three of them with temperature were prohibited to the flight. Notwithstanding the security measures observed, the attempts of the Ukrainian authorities to persuade local residents in keeping control of the situation seems to end in nothing.
Disorders had been followed by detentions and criminal cases, however, before the next day to come, the situation was completely settled after it was taken under control of the government. However, its coverage in some media created an impression of panic which may surpass that one in Chinese cities where coronavirus was confirmed. Such panic is hardly surprising since the Russian TV channels became the main source of information in Novy Sanzhary for many citizens who have no access to Internet and no Ukrainian TV.
The most expressive was the reaction of the Russian representative of the Ministry of International Affairs Mariya Zakharova. She immediately responsed to the situation in Ukraine and gave her comment in Facebook, where she contradistinguished Ukraine to Europe and denoted it as medieval state. In this context she charged Ukraine with a lot – from the Ukrainian strive to democracy and decay of civil society to unsuccessfully implemented reforms, administrative disorder, and fiction of human rights, calling Ukrainian democracy a bigger danger than Chinese totalitarism.
It still remains unclear, why the Russian official turned so high attention to Ukrainian internal affairs, while the situation around coronavirus in Russia, particularly in Siberia and Ural is far from being optimistic. Recently, Governor of Chelyabinsk oblast Alexey Tesler searched for excuses as regards closing the quarantine stations in Varnensky and Sosnovsky regions in consequence of public outcries. According to him, this was caused by the lack of interdepartmental cooperation. In addition, he pointed to the lack of awareness of the people, as well as absence of official statements and expert comments. The residents were even not explained that the stations were opened for healthy people who were only being placed under quarantine supervision.
In Russian city Nizhnevartovsk the family couple from China was kicked away from the public taxi bus after woman start coughing. They were told that they looked like Asians, therefore they got coronavirus. Soon, passengers required their getting off.
All this attests to the fact that the new biological threat became a powerful political weapon. Instead of arranging the situation within their state, bordering China and hosting infected people, Russian authorities consider it more appropriate to unleash disturbances in Ukraine, stinging their neighbours as painful as possible. Well, nothing wondering.
