Paul Goble
Staunton, November 1 – As the coronavirus spreads across Russia, overwhelming the regions and highlighting Moscow’s inability to articulate a common strategy, ever more Russians are engaged in one or another form of denialism on the Internet, with some insisting the virus was invented by the Americans and others by the Kremlin to increase its control over society.
According to a survey by the Higher School of Economics, 23 percent of Russians now believe that the pandemic was invented by someone, and 9.6 percent more say it is not as serious as the media is presenting it (versia.ru/kollaps-regionalnoj-mediciny-v-razgar-pandemii-glupost-xalatnost-ili-korrupciya).
The Versiya portal reports that psychiatrists say this is an entirely natural “defense mechanism.” Russians can see the pandemic all around them but don’t see anyone coming to help them and consequently are denying to themselves and others the reality that their own eyes and experience reveals.
For the third day in a row, Russian officials recorded more than 18,000 new infections, in this case, a total of 18,665, a new record bringing the cumulative tot6al to 1,636,781. They also reported registering 245 deaths, raising that toll to 28,235 (echo.msk.ru/blog/covid2019_official/2734682-echo/).
Some Russians were likely encouraged by a report that people who wear glasses are five times less to be infected than those who do not (versia.ru/v-rossii-za-sutki-zaregistrirovano-18-665-novyx-sluchaev-zarazheniya-koronavirusom-i-245-smertej-ot-nego). However that may be, the pandemic continued to surge almost everywhere (regnum.ru/news/society/3101964.html).
St. Petersburg reported that it had recorded 18 percent more cases this week than last and has had to reopen coronavirus treatment centers it had closed after the spring surge (regnum.ru/news/3104481.html and regnum.ru/news/3104485.html).
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said hospitals being reopened there would be kept open until the end of the pandemic even if the current numbers decline (versia.ru/v-rossii-za-sutki-zaregistrirovano-18-665-novyx-sluchaev-zarazheniya-koronavirusom-i-245-smertej-ot-nego). Many expect more restrictions are ahead (ura.news/news/1052456795).
One important “reopening” was announced. Moscow says that it will soon reopen flights between Tokyo and Moscow and Tokyo and Vladivostok (regnum.ru/news/3104302.html).
Analysts say that all the problems the Russian government and business are having with the development and manufacture of coronavirus vaccines simply highlight deeper and broader problems in the country’s medical sector where “stupidity, greed, and bureaucracy” predominate (kp.ru/daily/2171202.5/4313533/).
There was more bad news on the economic front: Real estate officials say Moscow will reduce the amount of space rented to business by 14 to 18 percent over the next eight months (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/81260), and the Accounting Chamber says economic decline may well extend into next year (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/81262).
And Russian officials say that only about six percent of Russians have mortgages, something that is generally a sign of middle class existence in the West were approximately half of the population does (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/81256).
Meanwhile, in other pandemic-related developments in Russia today,
· Some regions are now restricting visits by sports teams from beyond their borders in order to limit the spread of the coronavirus (regnum.ru/news/3104496.html).
· Officials in Sverdlovsk Oblast are denying reports that they have asked doctors who have been infected but are asymptomatic to continue to work in a regional hospital (regnum.ru/news/3104390.html).
· And officials in Perm hope to shame Russians into following restrictions by publishing weekly lists of those who don’t (kommersant.ru/doc/4557148).
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