“… Russia’s population has been in near-constant decline since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, due to a low birth rate, an under-resourced healthcare system, and emigration. The coronavirus pandemic, which has killed at least 400,000 people in Russia according to the national statistic agency Rosstat, has seriously aggravated the problem. … This week the country set a […]
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A government tally recorded 936 Covid deaths over the past 24 hours. (Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Oct. 8, 2021) Russia broke another one-day coronavirus death toll record Friday, as more regions reimpose restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the virus and the Kremlin stops short of reintroducing nationwide measures. A government tally recorded 936 Covid deaths over the […]
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(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, Oct. 3, 2021) Despite Moscow’s claims about first-time vaccinations, the rate of full immunization is going up so slowly that Russia won’t have managed to vaccinate 50 percent of its population in less than a year from now, according to Viktor Kabanov, who is an analyst for the Watching COVID-2019 group (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2021/10/02/proizvodstvo-ne-sovsem-chistoe). […]
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The World Health Organization (WHO) said it is still reviewing data about Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine before approving it for emergency use […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 6 (Interfax) – Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko has said she is sure there will be no federal lockdown or forcible vaccination for Covid-19 in Russia. “I am positive there will be no federal lockdown,” Matviyenko told reporters on Wednesday. The efforts taken by the government to contain the coronavirus pandemic will allow avoiding this measure, Matviyenko said. […]
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The move to relax import rules could potentially allow Russians to have Western coronavirus jabs … as well as Chinese vaccines […]
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Russia has reported 857 new coronavirus-related deaths, a single-day record since the pandemic began, as the country continues to see a surge in infections linked to the Delta variant […]
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MOSCOW. Sept 28 (Interfax) – Chairman of the seventh State Duma’s Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky has described as discriminatory a decision which the U.S. media say is being prepared in the United States to deny entry for foreigners immunized with the Russian Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V. “Thus, the U.S. will blatantly embark on a path of ‘vaccine discrimination.’ There […]
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Russia’s bid to have its coronavirus vaccine approved by either the WHO or EMA has run into multiple problems […]
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“… Putin … said he is isolating because several members of his inner circle tested positive …. that one of the people who tested positive was a vaccinated staff member with whom he had recently interacted ‘very closely in the course of the whole day.’ … Putin has said he was vaccinated with the two-dose regimen of Russia’s Sputnik V […]
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Despite the country recording several all-time high Covid-19 death tolls, the most recent on Aug. 26, authorities have continued to lift restrictions […]
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(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, Aug. 13, 2021) The Russian government does not release all-Russian figures on vaccinations, but the Gogov.ru portal sums up reports from the regions which do. It says that at present some 235,000 Russians are getting their shots each day, down from 600,000 daily in early July (gogov.ru/articles/covid-v-stats). On the one hand, this […]
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“On April 12th, the Jordan Center and the Harriman Institute co-hosted a panel on the private sector in Russia as part of the NYC-Russia Public Policy Series. Panelists included Simeon Djankov, Director of Development Economics at the World Bank; Dinissa Duvanova, Associate Professor of International Relations at Lehigh University; Alena Ledeneva, Professor of Politics and Society at University College London; […]
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With parliamentary elections looming, the Kremlin is wary of pushing Russians too hard to do something a majority are against — getting vaccinated. (Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jake Cordell – August 13, 2021) The pace of vaccinations across Russia has dropped by 60% in recent weeks, just as the country breaks records for the number of daily fatalities as […]
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MOSCOW. July 13 (Interfax) – Russia has registered 24,702 new cases of Covid-19 and a new all-time high of 780 deaths in the past 24 hours, the coronavirus response headquarters said in a statement on Tuesday. “Over the past day, 24,702 Covid-19 cases were confirmed in 85 regions of Russia, including 2,894 asymptomatic cases identified proactively (11.7%),” the headquarters said. […]
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A majority of Russians … are still not ready to get vaccinated against the coronavirus […]
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At least 17 Russian regions have reintroduced coronavirus restrictions … as the country grapples with the rise of the highly infectious Delta variant […]
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Russia has only vaccinated 13% of its population against Covid-19. With herd immunity a far-off prospect, it now faces the daunting challenge of fending off a highly infectious variant. (Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Pjotr Sauer – June 21, 2021) Two weeks after 82-year-old Kirill Kruchkov died of Covid-19 in the Tula region, 200 kilometers south of Moscow, his family […]
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… Putin said Wednesday that mandating coronavirus vaccinations would be “impractical and impossible” amid an ongoing debate […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – May 19, 2021) Russia’s former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has expressed support for compulsory vaccinations Wednesday as the country grapples with slower-than-hoped-for coronavirus vaccine uptake. Medvedev, who was demoted to deputy chief of Russia’s Security Council in a major cabinet reshuffle last year, described mandating vaccinations as a tradeoff between individual choice and protecting the […]
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MOSCOW. May 19 (Interfax) – Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev has called on the global community to ensure access to vaccines for the novel coronavirus infection to everyone and to stop practicing “vaccine nationalism.” “It is necessary to in the near future agree on the rules for recognizing vaccines for the purpose of cross-border travel and ensure general […]
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Russia’s economy shrank by 1% in the first quarter of 2021, the Rosstat statistics agency estimated […]
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The spike was announced 24 hours after the Kremlin denied … report[s] that Russia is in the midst of a Covid-19 third wave […]
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… Russia’s coronavirus statistics have been heavily questioned since the start of the pandemic […]
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Latest figures continue to show the slow pace of Russia’s vaccination rollout. (Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 15, 2021) Around 820,000 Muscovites have received both doses of a coronavirus vaccine, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said yesterday, with the number who have received at least one dose of Russia’s three homemade jabs having surpassed 1 million in the capital. In a […]
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Among other post-Covid symptoms, the academician listed chronic fatigue syndrome and endothelial dysfunction (vascular inflammation) in different organs of the body, including the heart and brain […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 14, 2021) President Vladimir Putin announced Wednesday that he has received his second Covid-19 vaccine shot with one of Russia’s domestically developed jabs and that he hoped Russians would follow his example. Putin, 68, received his first dose on March 23. “I want to inform you that right now, before entering this room, I […]
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The leaders of Russia, France and Germany met by conference call … discuss[ing] coronavirus vaccines, the Iranian nuclear standoff[,] … eastern Ukraine, Libya … Syria [and Navalny] […]
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Russia avoided mass unemployment and a sharp fall in GDP but has one of the world’s highest excess death tolls […]
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“… Putin said … he … experienced minor side effects from the coronavirus vaccine … Interfax … reported, citing a TV interview. [According to Putin, symptoms included] ‘… slight pain in [his] muscles[,] … [but his] temperature was normal,’ …. [with] an uncomfortable feeling on the [injection] site …. Putin did not reveal which of three Russian vaccines he [received] […]
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says demand for the Russian vaccine far exceeds supply in foreign countries …. But the same situation holds in many parts of Russia where there is now not enough vaccine to meet domestic demand […]
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… March 8, an official at the EU’s medicines regulator was quick to dismiss the idea of granting emergency authorization for Russia’s vaccine, comparing it to ‘Russian roulette’ […]
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“… Russia[] Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) [head] Kirill Dmitriev … [announced] ‘agreements with companies from Italy, Spain, France and Germany to launch … Sputnik V [production]’ … allow[ing] … Sputnik [vaccine supplies] to the European market ‘once … approval is granted by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).’ If approved Sputnik would become the first non-Western coronavirus [vaccine] … certified for […]
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(PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo – Sarah Wilson Sokhey – Feb, 22, 2021) Sarah Wilson Sokhey is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. The coronavirus pandemic in Russia posed the same myriad challenges as in many countries: a devastating loss of life, strained healthcare resources, and an economic crisis. In Russia’s case, the pandemic also came at […]
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Pharmaceutical industry experts told The Moscow Times that manufacturers are set to overshoot targets while Russians remain indifferent to the jab. (Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Felix Light, Pjotr Sauer – Feb. 19, 2021) A surge in production of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine combined with domestic distrust of the jab could lead to a boom in exports, pharmaceutical executives […]
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… A Russian tendency to place less value on human life than people in more developed countries may also play a role in the tendency to accept large numbers of Covid-19 fatalities […]
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“Russia’s coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V … if it is going to meet a target of vaccinating almost one-tenth of the world’s population … must rely on a factory in Brasília, production lines in South Korea and a plant in the Indian city of Hyderabad. … With limited production capacity in Russia, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), … managing Sputnik […]
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MOSCOW. Feb 15 (Interfax) – Russia registered 14,207 new Covid-19 cases and 394 deaths in the past 24 hours, the coronavirus response headquarters said in a statement on Monday. “Over the past day, 14,207 Covid-19 cases were confirmed in 85 regions of Russia, including 1,559 asymptomatic cases identified proactively (11.0%),” the headquarters said. The number of new Covid-19 cases has […]
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… experts say … overall figures and the numbers Moscow reports … understate the impact of the pandemic, … many suggesting that the total number of deaths is not 70,000 but 110,000 or more […]
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The vaccination campaign against the novel coronavirus has begun in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) using the Russian vaccine […]
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The coronavirus pandemic pushed Russian living standards to their lowest level in a decade, [according to] new economic data published by the country’s statistics service […]
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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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