Paul
Goble
Staunton, July 3 – Aleksey Raksha, a
Russian demographer who told the New York Times that 70 percent of covid-19
cases in Moscow were not reflected in the official statistics, is out of a job
at the Russian statistical administration. He didn’t say whether he was fired,
but there can be no doubt he did not have future there (meduza.io/news/2020/07/03/demografa-alekseya-rakshu-usomnivshegosya-v-ofitsialnoy-statistike-smertey-ot-covid-19-uvolili-iz-rosstata).
The
official figures today were 6718 new infections, bringing that total to
667,883; and 176 deaths, raising that total to 9859 (t.me/COVID2019_official/948).
But independent analysts say the death total is at least 15,072, more than 50
percent greater than Russian officials acknowledge (zona.media/coronagraph).
And health minister Mikhail Murashko
said that only 40 doctors in Russia had died from the coronavirus, far longer
than others have reported. He did acknowledge that the causes of a number of
other deaths from infections are still under investigation and that the total
could change (interfax.ru/russia/715741).
Murashko also said that a second
wave of the pandemic is improbable in Russia (versia.ru/v-rossii-vyyavleno-6718-novyx-sluchaev-zarazheniya-koronavirusom-i-176-letalnyx-isxodov);
although other experts said that the chances there would be a second wave were
quite large (versia.ru/v-rossii-vyyavleno-6718-novyx-sluchaev-zarazheniya-koronavirusom-i-176-letalnyx-isxodov).
But the minister did say that he
does not believe Russia will be able to return to a normal existence until February
2021 at the earliest, an assessment that is significantly less optimistic than
those being offered by Vladimir Putin (interfax.ru/russia/715739).
Pandemic problems continued across
Russia. A Moscow election official who handled voting in the referendum this
past week has been diagnosed with the coronavirus and may have infected numerous
people who took part (tvrain.ru/teleshow/vechernee_shou/uik_korona-511797/).
Moscow museums which have reopened –
about 30 percent have – have become hotspots of new infections (interfax.ru/moscow/715628). Investigators
are also looking into several explosions of the virus at children’s facilities
in various parts of the country (mbk-news.appspot.com/suzhet/koronavirus-v-rossii-xronika/
and versia.ru/v-rossii-vyyavleno-6718-novyx-sluchaev-zarazheniya-koronavirusom-i-176-letalnyx-isxodov).
And Russian
consumer affairs monitors said today that there had been more than 500 cases of
the violation of anti-epidemic recommendations at airports over the last three
weeks (kommersant.ru/doc/4399954?tg).
Having cut back or eliminated
national projects in demography, health care and accessible living, the Russian
government has now decided to do the same thing with the one directed at
boosting small businesses, a step that makes their recovery even more
problematic (finanz.ru/novosti/aktsii/chinovniki-postavili-krest-na-malom-biznese-1029363688).
Russian processing industries showed
some improvement in June compared to May but will still have “colossal” losses
for the year, analysts say (agoniya.eu/archives/6569).
Banks are increasingly demanding repayments although they have been willing to
restructure existing loans (iz.ru/1027264/vadim-arapov/tak-sebe-kanikuly-klienty-bankov-zhaluiutsia-na-peresmotr-kreditnykh-uslovii).
And the Krizis-Kopilka portal
lists the following problems facing the Russian economy: growing budget deficits,
devaluation, overdue loans, falling interest rates on deposits, a worsening investment
crisis, possible new sanctions by the US, and a collapse of the Russian
currency and debt markets (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/77841).
Finally today, the Meduza news
agency reported the results of a poll it has taken of Russians who have been
working at home. The survey shows that most Russians want to keep their jobs
but don’t want to have to return to the office five days a week (meduza.io/short/2020/07/03/my-znaem-chto-vy-ne-hotite-vozvraschatsya-v-ofis).
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