Clot-shots for kids & other exciting news

Edward Slavsquat's weekly Russia-related link dump & open thread

Work hard, play hard (photo credit: No Context Russia)

Greetings internet friends and enemies,

Welcome to Edward Slavsquat’s weekly news roundup. You have permission to shill all your favorite URLs in the comments section. Or just say hello.

Also, a very joyous Easter to all those who observe the Julian calendar.

Sputnik Kiddo: Approved!

Russia’s Health Ministry announced on April 15 that Alexander Gintsburg’s latest genetic slurry, Gam-COVID-Vak-D (D for deti, or children, in English), had been approved for youngsters ages 6-11.

Gintsburg submitted his Sputnik Kiddo formula for review on January 31, meaning this completely unnecessary and probably dangerous injection was given the go-ahead in less than 3 months.

Science has changed a lot over the past two years.

After 9-17 years of development and clinical trials, it typically takes two years to approve a new vaccine, according to a pre-COVID document published by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations. (The IFPMA quietly removed this information from its website after the genesis of expedited, but super safe and effective, COVID “vaccines”. Tsk tsk, the internet never forgets.)

A helpful chart published by one of the largest international Big Pharma lobbyists

If we weren’t living in an upside-down garbage world, Sputnik Kiddo would still be in the “Drug Discovery” phase. Just 7-15 more years, Gintsburg—eye on the prize!

But no, it’s not like that anymore. And it’s doubtful it will ever be like that again.

News from Russian media

• The Ukrainian military shelled the Transfiguration Cathedral in Donetsk during its Easter service, killing one and injuring six others. [Nakanune]

• Kiev confirmed a POW exchange that took place over the last several days. The Russian military (Wagner PMC, according to reports) returned 130 servicemen to Ukraine. Moscow has not commented on the prisoner swap. [Kommersant]

• The “digitalization” of Africa is being carried out with Russian expertise. On April 14, a two-day Russia-Africa IT conference ended in Moscow: “We have a lot of new solutions, technologies, we are actively investing in their development, and we have something to share with African countries in terms of digitalization of public administration, advanced digital platforms for economic development,” Russian Minister of Digital Development Maksut Shadayev said. [Vedomosti]

• Herman Gref, Russia’s friendliest banker, prophesized that children will have to learn to coexist with AI or become useless eaters. Katyusha has the details:

“The next big step for humanity will be the creation of a “global AI” [for global governance - note by Katyusha], and here we will have to think about security together,” Gref said.

“Every child should know how AI works. Every child should know the difference between AI and human. And every child should know how to work with AI to enhance our capabilities. Our future depends on how we answer the questions: Will machines complement or replace us, what should we prioritize teaching our children today, and what does it mean to be human in the age of AI?” he continued .

By the way, the head of Sberbank himself answered these questions back in 2019:

“We have drawn for ourselves three competencies that characterize the “man of the future”. The first is a person who has a high degree of creativity. Secondly, this person has a well-developed systems thinking. It is very rare to find a person who is very creative, with systems thinking. Of the seven billion people, six billion will be weeded out ...”

• The search query “how to remove [state services portal] Gosuslugi” became a top 20 Google search in Russia after the ratification of a law that will allow military summonses to be sent via the government app. [Kommersant]

Have a restful Sunday,

— Riley

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