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Geopolitics

Fear And Loathing In The Time Of Contagion

Protest rally against Governor Whitmer's order to stay home in Lansing, Michigan
Protest rally against Governor Whitmer's order to stay home in Lansing, Michigan
Benjamin Witte

It is, of course, inevitable that governments' stay-at-home orders and other emergency measures to contain the novel coronavirus would generate differences of opinion.


And yet, even a few weeks ago, it was hard to imagine that it would take as ugly a turn as what's happening right now in the U.S. state of Michigan, where multiplying death threats against Governor Gretchen Whitmer forced authorities to close down the Capitol Building.


On various Facebook pages, people who planned to attend a far-right "Judgement Day" demonstration at the Capitol left comments this week calling for Whitmer "to be hanged, lynched, shot, beaten or beheaded," Newsweek reports. One internet-savvy thug suggested crowdfunding sources to hire a hitman.


That participants in previous protests against the governor's statewide shutdown order showed up in paramilitary-style garb and brandished assault weapons adds an obvious level of gravitas to the threats.


As an American, watching it unfold from my home in France, it's important to note that there's a political and cultural context to the standoff in Michigan that goes beyond the issue of COVID-19. And yes, it is distinctly American — particularly in the era of Trump, who describes the armed, star-spangled protestors as "very good people."


Still, facing the same global health crisis, the United States isn't alone clearly when it comes to public division and distrust: In South Korea, fears of a second wave of the coronavirus have intersected with an undercurrent of homophobia following reports linking a new outbreak of the disease to a gay nightclub, Seoul correspondent Morten Soendergaard Larsen wrote in Foreign Policy.


Elsewhere, the divisions are more subtle. Here in France, for example, French broadcaster France Bleu reported on a flurry of finger-pointing after the partial lifting this week of a two-month lockdown prompted mostly young people to pack the banks of the Saint-Martin canal in Paris for a long-awaited drink outside with friends.


That an evening apéro could be construed as a moral issue speaks volumes about the nature of this particular crisis. There are, of course, gestures here and there of solidarity. But in this bizarre context of contagion and forced confinement, more than good will, what really seems to be spreading is blame and suspicion of anyone who sees the pandemic differently than you.


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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

That Man In Mariupol: Is Putin Using A Body Double To Avoid Public Appearances?

Putin really is meeting with Xi in Moscow — we know that. But there are credible experts saying that the person who showed up in Mariupol the day before was someone else — the latest report that the Russian president uses a doppelganger for meetings and appearances.

screen grab of Putin in a dark down jacket

During the visit to Mariupol, the Presidential office only released screen grabs of a video

Russian President Press Office/TASS via ZUMA
Anna Akage

Have no doubt, the Vladimir Putin we’re seeing alongside Xi Jinping this week is the real Vladimir Putin. But it’s a question that is being asked after a range of credible experts have accused the Russian president of sending a body double for a high-profile visit this past weekend in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

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Reports and conspiracy theories have circulated in the past about the Russian leader using a stand-in because of health or security issues. But the reaction to the Kremlin leader's trip to Mariupol is the first time that multiple credible sources — including those who’ve spent time with him in the past — have cast doubt on the identity of the man who showed up in the southeastern Ukrainian city that Russia took over last spring after a months-long siege.

Russian opposition politician Gennady Gudkov is among those who confidently claim that a Putin look-alike, or rather one of his look-alikes, was in the Ukrainian city.

"Now that there is a war going on, I don't rule out the possibility that someone strongly resembling or disguised as Putin is playing his role," Gudkov said.

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