Because of Pandemic, Not a Single Foreign Tourist Entered Russia in Second Quarter, Officials Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 5 --  According to the Association of Tour Operators of Russia and the Border Service of the FSB, not a single foreign tourist entered the country during the second quarter, a remarkable measure of just how tightly Moscow closed not only air but sea and land access because of the pandemic (regnum.ru/news/3028655.html).

            Today, officials announced that they had recorded another 5204 cases of infection, bringing that total for the entire period of the pandemic to 866,627, and another 139 corovirus deaths, bringing that toll to 14,490 (t.me/COVID2019_official/1186). Doctors, religious leaders and politicians continued to be especially hard hit (regnum.ru/news/polit/3029211.html and regnum.ru/news/3029128.html).

            Apparently stung by suggestions that Russian firms developing the vaccine had cut corners to allow them to announce that they had come up with the vaccine first, the Vector Center held a press conference at which it said its scientists had followed “all required demands” for a new vaccine (regnum.ru/news/3029130.html).

            The pandemic continues to ebb and flow across the country, with new openings and re-closings happening in various places (regnum.ru/news/society/3028625.html, regnum.ru/news/3029482.html, regnum.ru/news/3029478.html and regnum.ru/news/3029035.html).

            In addition to this uncertainty, three other pandemic issues are roiling the Russian media: worries about whether collective immunity will be compromised by flu this fall and winter (regnum.ru/news/3028817.html), disagreements among experts as to whether Russia will suffer a second wave of the pandemic (regnum.ru/news/3029166.html, regnum.ru/news/3029009.html, regnum.ru/news/3028920.html and regnum.ru/news/3028858.html), and worries about whether the coronavirus will have long term effects.

            The last is particularly worrisome (regnum.ru/news/3029185.html), given that it could require extended and expensive treatments even after the pandemic passes; and Russian officials have announced that they are continuing medical tracking of 246,000 people who have contracted the virus but have been declared cured (regnum.ru/news/3028747.html).

            As far as the economy is concerned, the Center for Macro-Economic Analysis and Short-Term Predictions says that the coronavirus crisis has become a systemic one and that the impact of the pandemic on the economy will be far greater than anyone is currently predicting (capost.media/news/ekonomika/in-russia-coronavirus-the-crisis-may-lead-to-reduced-sharply/).

            Also on the economic front, the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service reports that it is investigating a cartel-like conspiracy among the suppliers of medical equipment that may have cost the country three billion rubles (45 million US dollars) in addition to delays and even non-delivery of needed equipment (iarex.ru/articles/76819.html).

            Meanwhile, in other pandemic-related developments in Russia today,

Doctors have now passed miners, firemen and soldiers to become the most dangerous profession in Russia (regnum.ru/news/3029076.html).

A new book finds that misreporting about illnesses has its roots in Soviet times when doctors routinely lied to patients about their cases (zona.media/article/2020/08/04/mokhov).

And Russian government censors are now filing charges against a Moscow newspaper and its editor for publishing what the regime calls “fake news” about the coronavirus in Chechnya and the Russian military (mbk-news.appspot.com/news/na-novuyu-gazetu/).