When something seems like a solution to a problem, look beyond.

In summer 2019 many protesters in Moscow were sued by the city transport authorities and a restaurant for making them work harder (!). This seemed like complete nonsense until I understood the wider problem. Most Russians hadn’t yet ditched the bug of believing that the Tsar or the Party will fix their problems. Thus they believed that the only person that can solve the problem is someone from the government. The government of course, became tired of this: solving every problem is impossible.

So the government took advantage of the popularity of opposition leaders and the protesters following them. These people were fined high sums for minor misdemeanours. Most people in Russia haven’t crowdfunded anything, so by engaging in a nationwide discourse, the state created a situation in which people would impulsively help them, by crowdfunding. People learned about crowdfunding and later used it for personal matters. Russians became richer and Russia became better. This is especially noteworthy because Russia established a new crowdfunding law on January 1, 2020.

When Russia hosted the World Cup this year—an event of international importance—the host cities cleaned streets and threw away the trash, made life safer and the overall appearance neater. (Oh, and people were friendlier)

The more such events Russia hosts (or any country, for that matter), the better everything will be. It’s a pity that Ekaterinburg didn’t win the Expo 2025 bid.