St. Petersburg businesses defy the QR code yoke

And then get raided.

Why won’t these small businesses submit and die? (A “resistance map” from December 2020)

St. Petersburg is marching toward socioeconomic suicide after the city expanded its QR code system on January 2. Now you need to show a photo ID and a digital vaccination certificate in order to buy a gelato on Nevsky Prospect.

The cattle-tagged Venice of the North “will not return to its former way of life,” St. Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov gleefully proclaimed on January 3, a day after the city ratcheted up its QR code regime. “New restrictions, empowering employers to exclude the unvaccinated from work, new vaccination incentives and ubiquitous QR codes are an important and very timely step in this direction.”

This is technocrat lingo for “we’re going to murder your business and plunge you and your children into poverty.”

But will Beglov and his “timely” QR codes succeed in destroying St. Pete?

Our top secret informant in St. Petersburg says the business-murdering restrictions are not being strictly observed at the establishments she frequents in her neighborhood. Which makes us believe this is probably the case in many other parts of the city. There are reports confirming this, actually.

In fact, it appears local authorities are aware of this ghastly insubordination and are taking the necessary counter-measures to ensure life in the city is adequately intolerable.

Don’t move, this is a RAID:

Every day, government officials conduct raids to ensure that catering, trade, service and public transport enterprises comply with the requirements of the relevant resolution of the city government. […]

Over the past three days in the daytime, employees of specialized city committees have checked 75 stores, 24 catering establishments and six service organizations in Vyborgsky, Primorsky, Admiralteysky and Central districts of St. Petersburg. Various violations were identified in seven organizations, while QR codes were not checked for visitors in two stores.

This is pretty scummy.

What is the precise health benefit of digital cattle tags? Does the St. Petersburg government have a chart or a graph or something, showing how the defenestration of freedom of movement and free commerce will increase overall human well-being? Of course not.

It’s a scam. It’s a giant, global scam.

We really are all being boiled alive—just very, very slowly.

For example, in December 2020, all catering establishments in St. Pete were ordered to reduce business hours during the New Year holiday (which ends on January 10 in Russia).

The QR code siege of St. Petersburg

Facing guaranteed extinction if they obeyed these suicidal rules, dozens of businesses in the city decided to just keep operating as usual. Because why not? They literally have nothing to lose. YOLO:

Entrepreneur Alexander Konovalov told RBK that the idea of ​​creating the "Resistance Map" belongs to him. According to him, about 200 establishments have already joined the project, and in the near future they will be added to the map. “The calculation is simple: if everyone works openly, then there are more chances that they will listen to us,” he said.

“These restaurants, bars and hookah bars continue to work for guests as usual. If they comply with the decree, they will not survive and everything will be closed,” the map’s description says.

Konovalov noted that he is not afraid of Rospotrebnadzor [Russia’s COVID police] sanctions. “Whatever the sanctions, it is still not death. And not to work is death, without exaggeration. The authorities chose a blow worse than a lockdown.”

Here’s the bad news: The map doesn’t exist anymore. Allegedly it was taken down after unhappy business owners managed to “get through” to authorities. We’re not sure if that’s the real reason the map disappeared, though.

RIP Resistance Map

This really is a simple matter of survival. Here’s what one bar owner said when explaining his decision to join the Resistance:

“We have chosen to work openly and understand that we are violating the regulation and have resigned ourselves to possible punishments. Now we are not talking about making money, but about survival and helping the staff. There is no other way for us. More than 50 employees work in the network. Everyone needs to pay for housing, study, loans, help their relatives, feed themselves, feed their children… We have never been given an answer why it is more dangerous to work after 23:00 than before. The inspection services shrug their shoulders.”

It’s because the Russian government is trying to murder your bar, sir. That’s why.