Saturday, May 15, 2021

Putin-Biden Summit May Be Virtual Rather than Face to Face

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 13 – Deutsche Welle reports that the proposed summit meeting between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden may not take place face to face as many had assumed but rather in the form of a video conference (dw.com/ru/kreml-dopustil-vstrechu-putina-i-bajdena-v-onlajn-formate/a-57521014).

            That would be consistent with Putin’s recent approach in which he has remained isolated to protect himself against infection but has increasingly used telephone calls, television and the Internet to communicate with other officials (tass.ru/politika/11369635).

            Today, Russian officials reported that they had registered 8380 new cases of infection and 392 new deaths from the coronavirus over the last 24 hours, as the pandemic continued to ebb and flow across Russia with St. Petersburg and the Far East remaining hotspots (t.me/COVID2019_official/2932, regnum.ru/news/society/3258922.html, regnum.ru/news/society/3267667.html and regnum.ru/news/3268023.html).

            Many places are extending restrictions, but popular resistance to them appears to be increasing. Moscow officials reported that in the capital, for example, there has been a rising tide of violations of the mask regime in public transport (regnum.ru/news/3268400.html).

            Kommersant reported but the Russian authorities quickly denied that cases of the India strain of the virus had been confirmed in Russia among Indian students who had recently been allowed to come for a visit (kommersant.ru/doc/4804150 and interfax.ru/russia/765830).

            Moscow takes great pride in being “the undisputed world leader” in terms of the number of coronavirus vaccines, with four domestic kinds, but not all of those are available to ordinary Russians in all places (regnum.ru/news/society/3268609.html). Meanwhile, Moscow reported that the Maldives has approved use of the Russian vaccine (sputnikvaccine.com/rus/newsroom/pressreleases/primenenie-vaktsiny-sputnik-v-odobreno-v-respublike-maldivy/).

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