‘It All Depends On The Body Count’: Pandemic Threatens Putin’s Spring Of Political Pageantry – Analysis

By Matthew Luxmoore*

(RFE/RL) — Aleksandr Kolotushkin is accustomed to being feted.

As one of the few remaining World War II veterans in a country that reveres them, he regularly dons his Red Army uniform to visit schools and reminisce about his past before crowds of children.

When he turned 93 in December, a ceremony...