Irina Khakamada about coronavirus and future of Russian economy

RU

The thesis from Instagram of Irina Khakamada about the coronavirus, how not to fall into depression, the future of the Russian economy, what small and medium business can expect and changes in the Russian Constitution.

About free time during the coronavirus

"As everything else fell apart, I began to prepare lectures in English in a very intensive and cool way. I started to write a book and study the most complex philosophical works in order to write it. I keep doing sports - the clubs are all closed, but there are all kinds of options. I have a lot of unread books, I've signed up for the media library.

When asked what will change everything, survey was done by Esquire 10-12 years ago and one of the artists, a representative of the creative profession said that everything will change when people's free time is one of the important criteria for success. When people are not afraid of their free time and they will be wildly interested in themselves.  This will change everything. We didn't do it voluntarily, it's just happened, but we have a chance to change the world for the better. It's just that there's a moment when everything automatically changes, because if we don't love our free time today, we will die of depression."

About depression

"People watch soap operas, get drunk with beer or wine, but then they start to get depressed anyway, because after a long time watching something passive, you get depressed, after drinking beer you still get depressed, and in order to avoid it you have to do something creative. Reading complicated literature, watching complicated movies.

They should Trying to do something that haven't done before for self-development. Learn something more complex, primarily in working with yourself, consider it a retreat, a long, long retreat, this is already called creative and constructive not to despond.

If not then drink all the wine with beer, and then either the money will run out or it will all go up in price."

A real threat or conspiracy by the shadow government

"The truth is somewhere in the middle, there's no such threat as it's being promoted, not just because of a conspiracy, but because it's being promoted by all media, because it gives ratings.

The real threat is to get sick, but not the threat of catastrophic death, because statistics show that in the past years there were the same number of people died from all kinds of viruses. Coronavirus's infection rate is very fast, it scared everyone. But people bear it calmly, young people are even more calm, children and pregnant women are not receptive.

I understood that it is useless to wait for the vaccine, because the virus mutates quickly and the immune system does not work.

So I'm more of a stickler for the principle that you have to be careful. They're asking to stay at home, so stay at home.

I believe that chaos is a chain of accidents in which every accident looks like a conspiracy. In fact, it's just a bunch of players who benefit from any random event. That's why it looks like a conspiracy."

About business and the labor market after coronavirus

"This is a very difficult time for business. If this continues to happen in our inefficient country, small and medium businesses, especially those working directly with the consumer market, will be killed.

So it's time to get things in order quickly.

Many people who have effectively gone online and become successful there may not return to offline, and those who will, at the same time, work online, knowing that this sector cannot be lost if something is successful there.

Businesses such as restaurants, dental clinics and so on will not change. They need to come back and they will quickly grow, gathering those customers who have been in lockdown.

But on the whole, the world will certainly change. It's not going to change in the sense that only the digital online economy will win, because the digital online economy requires offline earnings. Everyone who teaches something or does something online, and even the cryptocurrency market requires someone to earn real money. Therefore, the real market will quickly recover as soon as this whole epidemic calm down."

About the Russian economy

"I can't predict anything, but it will definitely be zero or negative growth. It all depends on three major players in the world of oil production: Saudi Arabia, America and Russia. When they sit back down at the negotiating table.

If all these three players find a compromise solution to reduce the volume of oil and increase prices, then Russia will be better off because we are dependent on oil, well, we are totally dependent.

If the price of oil is 20-25 or lower, then we are finished. If all this happens in panic and the destruction of small and medium businesses, the destruction of consumer demand and people are not buying anything in fear, we will not go back for sure. There's going to be some kind of economic counterrevolution."

About the amendment of the Constitution

"It's all a play, because it's already accepted. Ella Pamfilova (Russian politician, former deputy of the State Duma, candidate for president in 2000) herself confessed that it is just the good will of the President to listen to us, and since the good will of the President always ends only with the fact that only his good will is done, all our voices sink in heaven.

I am not interested in that. I am interested in another thing. You shouldn't look at everything so primitively. The renewal of the Constitution concerns only Putin, it does not concern other terms. It means that it is very tough, as always in Russia, either that or nothing.

The President's entourage and the President himself have decided to make the elite stand up and fear. The elite licking out all the seats as soon as they see that everything, the term is coming to an end, begins to give up and betray - this is a very dangerous situation for the President, very dangerous in our power structure. There are no institutions protecting him from his own elite and his entourage, because it is not by institutions, it is by concepts.

So, somehow it was necessary to make them believe that he is stronger than ever, and what really happens, whether he will use zeroing or not, time will show.

What it says in this Constitution, I don't care at all. It's never been implemented. For example, there's a subsistence minimum and constant indexation. Provided? Are they indexed? It's about access to excellent health care. Has everyone felt excellent health care yet?""

About the mortgage

"In turbulence time, you don't have to do anything. If you have extra money, then when prices fall, buy property without a mortgage. A mortgage is a loan, this is a debt.  If you don't know what happens next, how can you borrow. If you have money, then in a crisis like this all the rich people use it, buy assets for a small amount. Everything else doesn't work, you don't know what will happen in the next month."

What to read in quarantine

"Killing Commendatore" and "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" by Haruki Murakami, Kazuo Ishiguro, "Death in Venice" by Thomas Mann, "Steppenwolf" by Hermann Hesse. You can read some philosophical books about what a time of change is."




Irina Khakamada's Instagram