Comment Re:In the absence of Federal leadership... (Score 1) 267
Believe me, I don't like the Soviet way of doing lots of things. I experienced them firsthand.
However, the basic health service was one of the very few things the super centralized Soviet government handled decently. This included swift coordinated response to pandemics and mass inoculations.
This is a complete opposite of what Russian federal government is doing now. There is no coordination and no real financial support to local authorities.