On this photo you can see an elderly lady from Moscow (Russia). Her name was Rimma Sergeevna. She was 90 years old. She died during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021.

Rimma Sergeevna was a lonely elderly woman who lived on the next floor from me. Her two brothers died in the mid-90s. And throughout her life she never had children.

Rimma Sergeevna had deep dementia and I often met her between floors just in her nightie. At these moments she was disoriented - she did not understand who she was, where she was and where her apartment was.

On March 26, 2020, I found in some Moscow newspaper info about a ban on leaving home for elderly people over 65 years of age. From that moment on, I began to visit Rimma Sergeevna almost every day to bring her food and the necessary medicines.

I was a little wary when I discovered that almost all of Rimma Sergeevna’s apartment was covered with video cameras on the walls.

Rimma Sergeevna’s apartment is located in one of the historical centers of Moscow. The cost of such real estate can reach up to one million US dollars. Black realtors (name of real estate scammers in Russian slang) immediately find such lonely elderly people and ingratiate themselves with them in order to take possession of their apartments.

Some of my friends tried to calm me down and said that these cameras were installed by social services.

But during the Covid-19 pandemic, social workers almost never came to Rimma Sergeevna. They didn't bring her food. And they didn’t bring her the medicine she needed. But I started receiving calls with silence on the other side of the line.

Rimma Sergeevna died immediately after the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her apartment was put up for sale the day after her funeral.