Consumer affairs chief Anna Popova says … Moscow would like to vaccinate 80 to 90 percent … by the end of 2021, but experts say … even 60 percent … would be “an extremely serious achievement” […]
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One in seven acknowledged drinking more, one in 14 smoking, and slightly more than one in four overeating. Seventeen percent said … lockdown … led to conflicts among family members […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 15 (Interfax) – It looks like Russia has passed the peak of the coronavirus epidemic, and there is currently a trend toward stabilization, Deputy Director of Rospotrebnadzor’s Central Research Institute of Epidemiology for Clinical Analysis Natalia Pshenichnaya said. “We’re observing a certain trend toward stabilization,” Pshenichnaya told journalists on Friday. “Daily morbidity may still fluctuate, considering that Russia […]
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“… Russia’s government says 1.5m vaccines have been distributed … [with] hundreds of thousands more … ready … [but] doctors and officials … [indicate] a far bleaker reality of limited supplies and delayed shipments. … Moscow’s clinics have been busy vaccinating … [but] regions outside of the capital have struggled to secure adequate supplies, calling into question … [governmental] ability […]
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Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin is expecting the start of recovery from the socioeconomic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic […]
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… Putin has ordered officials to begin mass vaccinations next week and to open up the inoculation program to all Russians […]
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Because of the pandemic, 2020 was “the year of the Apocalypse” for both Russia and the West, but the two responded in opposite ways[…]
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Russia’s small companies [reportedly] were almost twice as likely to suffer negative consequences from the coronavirus pandemic than their larger counterparts […]
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“A New York Times reporter juggled fears engendered by the politicized rollout of the Sputnik V vaccine with the urge to gain protection from the deadly virus.” “… Russia’s coronavirus vaccine … Sputnik V[] [is] made at a factory outside of Moscow from genetically modified human cold viruses. Like so much else in Russia, … [its] rollout … was entangled […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – RM Staff – Jan. 6, 2021) The Levada Center has just released the results of its latest annual poll on the most significant events of the past year, and, predictably, the global coronavirus outbreak tops the list. As many as 39 percent of Russians believe the pandemic was the most significant event of 2020, while […]
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“The Gamaleya Research Institute, part of Russia’s Ministry of Health, developed a coronavirus vaccine known as Sputnik V or Gam-Covid-Vac. Gamaleya announced in December that the vaccine had an efficacy of 91.4 percent. Russia is using it in a mass vaccination campaign, and it is now being distributed in Argentina, Belarus and other countries ….” Click here for: “How Gamaleya’s […]
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“… Merkel and … Putin have discussed the possibility of making a controversial Russian vaccine in the EU as bottlenecks in supply slow down [some] [European] inoculation [efforts] …. but only [after] … Sputnik V … [is] authorised by the EU medicines regulator. … [which] could take several months … [I]t is thought … the vaccine has yet to be […]
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Hours after Pfizer-BioNTech made headlines … winning the first official general-use vaccine approval in the western world, … Putin ordered large-scale vaccination with [Russia’s] domestically produced] Sputnik V to start … late next week […]
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“… Putin [reportedly] has asked Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova to start large-scale coronavirus vaccination … next week ….’… more than two million doses have already been produced … or will be produced in the next few days …. [with vaccinations prioritizing] doctors and teacher[s].’ … The Sputnik V vaccine is … undergoing Phase III clinical trials, involving 40,000 volunteers. […]
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Russian police have fined more than 1 million people for violating COVID-19 restrictions since the beginning of the pandemic, the Interior Ministry said […]
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Russia registered 23,675 new Covid-19 cases, the all-time high of 507 deaths, and more than 25,000 recoveries in the past 24 hours, the coronavirus response headquarters said […]
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… Russian and international health experts have raised fresh concerns over the WHO’s public stance, saying … defense of questionable statistics and overly pro-government comments demonstrate[] Russia’s influence … and highlights … organizational weaknesses […]
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“… Russia’s health care system, vast yet underfunded, has been under significant strains … as the pandemic surges again and daily infections and virus death … break records. Across the country, 81% of hospital beds … set aside for coronavirus patients were full … Wednesday. Three times last week, the Russian government reported … record … daily deaths … [T]he […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Felix Light – IVANOVO, Nov. 20, 2020) In this hardscrabble city in central Russia, the morgues are full and well-paid jobs are scarce. Though many of Russia’s outlying regions are struggling with the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Ivanovo — a working-class city of 400,000 located 300 kilometers northeast of Moscow — is coping […]
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(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, Nov. 15, 2020) With the prospect that one or more vaccines against the coronavirus will be available in the near future, the Russian government must launch a massive effort to overcome the skepticism of Russians and get the vast majority of them to get the shots when they become available, experts say. […]
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… Moscow police detained a man dressed as Grandfather Frost … on Red Square near the Kremlin … where he was protesting a city ban on holiday celebrations […]
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Russia registered 22,410 new Covid-19 cases, the all-time high of 22,055 recoveries, and the all-time high of 442 deaths in the past 24 hours, the coronavirus response headquarters said […]
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“The virus is putting the healthcare system on its knees. A massive number of students are now sent out to aid.” “… According to the federal healthcare chief, several regions are now running out of available hospital bed[s]. … About 270,000 additional hospital beds are now being prepared for new patients. But medical staff is increasingly … [facing a] shortage. […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 11 (Interfax) – The coronavirus will very likely cease substantially affecting Russia’s economy by the end of 2020 or early 2021, while the main issue next year will be the budget as well as the necessity to replace budget expenditures with investments, First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov said on Wednesday during the “Strong Ideas for a New […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 9, 2020) The Russian ruble and stock market soared Monday, hitting their strongest levels in months as global markets cheered positive news from one of the frontrunners in the coronavirus vaccine race. American pharma giant Pfizer and German BioNTech said their vaccine, currently in Phase 3 medical trials, was 90% effective in preventing Covid-19 […]
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(U.S. Embassy Moscow – Oct. 23, 2020) Mr. Konstantin Remchukov, Editor-in-Chief, Nezavisimaya Gazeta NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA: So, Mr. Ambassador, as you mentioned, the time for the last months was unusual, so many frustration for people, so many bad news. And culture has always been a good retreat for people to boost up their energy, morale, spirits, and everything. So I’m very […]
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Medics in hospitals across Russia voiced frustration that authorities failed to use the summer respite to prepare for a second coronavirus wave. (Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Pjotr Sauer – Oct. 27, 2020) In a video widely shared across Russian social media last week, dozens of bodies wrapped in black plastic bags line the walls of a decrepit basement in […]
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Measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic and cover the budget revenue shortfall will cost Russia around 9% of its GDP in 2020-2021, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Oct. 22, 2020) Coronavirus deaths are on the rise in Russia partly because of improved cause-of-death methodology, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday. Russia’s national coronavirus information center has confirmed a total of 25,242 Covid-19 deaths after reporting record daily fatalities of over 200 in 10 of the last 15 days. By comparison, daily Covid-19 deaths […]
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Across the world, a growing ‘pandemic fatigue’ appears to be exacerbating the spread of the coronavirus …. Many governments have brought back restrictions they had lifted …. But while many European countries have imposed stringent measures again … Russia has in many ways carried on as normal […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 21 (Interfax) – Russia could not have shipped defective ventilators to the United States, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “This couldn’t have happened. These ventilators are broadly used in medical institutions and hospitals in very different cities across Russia. Some ventilators might break down. Any device sometimes breaks down and requires repairs,” Peskov told journalists when commenting on […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Oct. 19, 2020) Moscow will not return to a full coronavirus lockdown like it did in spring as long as residents abide by current restrictions, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Monday as new cases continued to rise. The epicenter of Russia’s Covid-19 outbreak, Moscow confirmed 5,376 new infections in the past 24 hours and almost 367,000 […]
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Around two-thirds of Russian medics believe that the country is not ready for a second wave of the coronavirus, according to a survey published by the VTimes news website Thursday […]
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“Russian health authorities approved a Covid-19 vaccine created by a former biological weapons research laboratory for public use, marking the second time the Kremlin has bypassed accepted scientific protocol as it tries to field a defense against the pandemic. A vaccine developed by the Vector State Virology and Biotechnology Center in Siberia has been registered, … Putin said …. registered […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 6 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said that many of his relatives and friends have been injected with a Russian coronavirus vaccine. “In my entourage, very many people close to me, and close relatives, we had them vaccinated. All staff who work around me. We are talking about tens of people,” Putin said at a meeting with […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, Sept. 26, 2020) The coronavirus pandemic has cut the incomes of 24 percent of the members of the Russian middle class and driven 6.1 percent of them into the ranks of the country’s poor, according to an analysis of Rosstat data by scholars at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics. Before the pandemic, […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, September 27, 2020) Coronavirus infections are rising rapidly in Moscow and other major Russian cities, with the number of cases in the capital jumping from 1050 three days ago to more than 2,000 today, the result, experts say, of the start of flu season and declining caution among Russians (svpressa.ru/economy/article/276981/, kp.ru/daily/217187.5/4293934/, regnum.ru/news/3074643.html, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jake Cordell – Sept. 29, 2020) Russia’s economy should be able to weather the ravages of a second wave of the coronavirus better than the first, economists say, but uncertainty and volatility will remain for the foreseeable future. As Russia records a sharp spike in new infections and Moscow starts to roll out new restrictions […]
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“Moscow is experiencing a sharp increase in new coronavirus cases[,] [a]s of Friday, September 25, …record[ing] 1,560 new cases in the last day – 510 more than the day before … nearly twice as many as last week. … the highest daily increase … since June 12. … Also on September 25, Russia recorded more than 7,000 new coronavirus cases […]
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“… [In response to concerns about their Lancet-published data, Russian vaccine] developers say … the methods … give only rough values …. [a] problem [that] would not have arisen … if their sample size had been larger. … [But they] do not explain … why they limited their trials to so few people. … [S]pecialists say … Gamaleya Center[] research […]
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With Russia’s borders shut, domestic flights carried almost as many passengers as last year in August. (Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Sept. 22, 2020) Aeroflot – Russia’s largest airline – carried almost as many passengers on domestic flights this August as it did in 2019, as Russia’s borders remained closed and millions took their summer vacations at home. Aeroflot Group […]
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“Russia will spend more on supporting its economy than funding its armed forces next year for the first time since 2014 … ahead of critical parliamentary elections. … [with economic] doldrums … amid low oil prices and western sanctions … [and with the economy] contract[ing] sharply … due to … coronavirus …. The Kremlin announced … [higher] spending … to […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, September 19, 2020) The pandemic has introduced major changes in Russian government policy but perhaps not one greater than this: for the first time in a very long time, the Russian government has spent more on promoting the economy than on maintaining and developing its military (sobkorr.org/news/5F6610F248362.html). The number of new cases […]
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“Russian children have returned to schools …. [T]eachers underwent mandatory virus tests …. Temperature checks are conducted each morning … [S]chool schedules were amended to reduce the number … attending at the same time. Authorities also limited … school cafeterias and recreation areas …. Masks in schools are not mandatory for all of Russia’s 85 regions ….” If a child […]
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MOSCOW. Sept 10 (Interfax) – Russia registered 5,363 new coronavirus cases and 128 coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours, the operative headquarters said on Thursday. “Over the past day, 5,363 Covid-19 cases were confirmed in 84 regions of Russia, including 1,302 active asymptomatic cases (24.3%),” the headquarters said. The daily growth in new coronavirus cases is on the rise. […]
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“Russian scientists have belatedly published first results from early trials into the experimental Sputnik V vaccine, which received government approval last month but drew considerable criticism from experts, as the shots had only been tested on several dozen people before being more widely administered. In a [Lancet] report … [vaccine] developers … said it appeared to be safe and to […]
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[Lancet: thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31866-3/fulltext] MOSCOW. Sept 4 (Interfax) – One of the world’s most reputable medical journals, The Lancet, has published the results of the Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials of the Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V, developed by the Gamaleya Institute. “The research being published in The Lancet proves the high level of safety and efficacy of the Russian […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, September 1, 2020) Russian officials reported registering 4729 new cases of coronavirus infection over the last 24 hours, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 1,000,048. They also said the number of new deaths equaled 123, bringing that toll to 17,299 (t.me/COVID2019_official/1403). Passing a million officially registered cases has […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Sept. 2, 2020) Russia’s population could see its biggest decline in 14 years in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic has raised the country’s death rate amid falling birth rates, according to government forecasts reported by the RBC news website Tuesday. The Covid-19 outbreak will also push Russia’s poverty rate up from 12.3% in 2019 to […]
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