We must be neither goldfish, whose memory lasts a second and a half, nor puppies that get distracted by every new stimulus every second and a half.
It’s all pretty simple. You need to understand the root cause and keep hammering at that exact point without getting distracted.
Lyubov Sobol published an investigation and documented proof that at the end of December last year, there was a dysentery outbreak in Moscow kindergartens. Children were being hospitalized with fevers of 40°C.
The illness was caused by low-quality food supplied by companies belonging to “Putin’s chef,” Yevgeny Prigozhin, who, thanks to Sobyanin, has for several years held a monopoly on food supplies to the city’s schools and kindergartens.
Sobol gathered both lab test results and testimony from parents.
After the investigation was published, even Rospotrebnadzor (Russia’s consumer safety watchdog) was forced to acknowledge the dysentery outbreak. So now the only possible dispute is over the scale: some say 7 kindergartens, others say 9.
But the fact is established: Concord’s food products caused dysentery, and children ended up in the hospital.
Prigozhin immediately enlisted media prostitutes Dorenko and Krasovsky, who began spreading an article from a Prigozhin-owned (!!) outlet claiming that the mothers of the children featured in Sobol’s report were paid extras hired for the occasion.
Obviously, no one believed posts from scum like that. It was clearly a paid smear job.
Prigozhin makes 23 billion rubles a year from school and kindergarten contracts. Starting next year, he plans to make even more—they’re now steering healthcare contracts his way too.
He absolutely does not want the dysentery story to be discussed. Moscow City Hall has been fairly successful at blocking the topic in the media and among bloggers “who can be worked with,” but people are still writing about it on social media. And Sobol is clearly not going to be talked into stopping. Especially after they enraged the mothers by calling them paid extras. Especially after someone jabbed a syringe into her husband’s leg.
So they simply need to change the subject.
An anonymous Telegram channel posts photos: Prigozhin on the steps of a hotel. Navalny near the hotel. Caption: Navalny and Prigozhin held a meeting. More on that here.
The same old bum, Dorenko, is the one hyping the story.
It didn’t really land. Everyone understands it’s fake. Dorenko may still imagine himself as some great TV hitman from Channel One, but by now he’s just an old crank with less media reach than Sobol, whose daily show rarely gets fewer than 150,000 views.
We are not backing away from this issue and will continue demanding answers from Sobyanin, an investigation, and compensation for the victims.
Well then, they need to put out something even more scandalous, right?
And Prigozhin’s press office, through its ridiculous email account where it literally tells everyone to get lost—for quotes and clicks, after all (“the troll factory” and all that!)
“confirms” the “meeting” between Navalny and Prigozhin, claiming that I offered to drop the mass-poisoning story in exchange for “loyalty in the municipal campaign in St. Petersburg.”
This is obviously a lie, from the big picture down to the details: I would never meet with Prigozhin, and why the hell would I need this clown’s loyalty in the St. Petersburg elections?
I already have the loyalty of Putin’s gubernatorial candidate, Beglov, whose campaign is so absurd that it is practically working for our victory.
Well, if this is what twists them up so badly, then this is exactly where we need to keep hitting, without getting distracted by the information noise.
Our demands are very simple and reasonable:
- A public response from Sobyanin acknowledging the dysentery outbreak
- An investigation into what happened, as required by law
- Holding those responsible accountable
Compensation for the victims. At least at the level that was paid to those who fell from a bridge on New Year’s Eve. If your child ended up in the hospital with a 40°C fever because of a food supplier, would you demand an investigation and compensation? Yes. That’s fair. So we need to support those who are in that situation now.
I urge the remaining decent media outlets not to chase clicks with pathetic articles like “Did Navalny meet with Prigozhin?”, but instead to investigate the poisoning and/or the Prigozhin-Sobyanin contracts.
I ask everyone to support Sobol and the mothers of the affected children who have rallied around her.
You can share her main investigation.
You can repost her appeal on Instagram.
You can take part in an experiment: an attempt to break through the information blockade via parents’ WhatsApp groups. Lyuba made a special video (you can get it here); if you’re in such a group, please share it there.
If you have any information about Prigozhin’s schemes involving food supplies, the kickbacks he gives to Sobyanin and his people, or anything else related to the subject of this post, write to us through “Black Box” completely anonymously. And if you want us to be able to contact you, leave your details.
Don’t be a goldfish. Be a human being.