Putin Says Regional Heads Can Introduce Lockdowns, Mandatory Vaccination

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 21 – Vladimir Putin says that the heads of Russia’s federal subjects have the right to introduce lockdowns and mandatory vaccinations if epidemiological circumstances require. He added that the rate of vaccination needs to be increased and that many Russians do not know enough about the virus and the vaccine (regnum.ru/news/3327871.html, regnum.ru/news/3327831.html and regnum.ru/news/3327862.html).

            The Kremlin leader repeated his call for international recognition of all vaccines Russian and otherwise so that no country will be compelled to fight the pandemic on its own but will have the advantages that such cooperation provides (regnum.ru/news/3327837.html).

            Russian officials said today they had registered 23,770 new infections and 784 new deaths from the coronavirus over the last 24 hours (t.me/COVID2019_official/3325). Russian media outlets reported that officials in fact are registering as many as five times as many cases as they report, a claim the Kremlin promptly denied (rfi.fr/ru/россия/20210721-сми-российские-власти-в-пять-раз-занизили-заболеваемость-covid-19  and regnum.ru/news/3327500.html).

            The pandemic continued to ebb and flow across the Russian Federation with Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova declaring that infections are spreading from the capitals and the central regions to the rest of the country (regnum.ru/news/society/3324376.html and regnum.ru/news/3327856.html).

            Golikova also said that 17 Russian regions, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, are now close to collective immunity as the result of vaccinations and those who have immunity from having contracted and then recovered from the coronavirus (regnum.ru/news/3327864.html).

            Opposition to mandatory vaccinations remains high. A Superjob poll finds that 55 percent of Russians oppose making the shots mandatory while only 28 percent say they favor such a step. Such findings are leading analysts to speak of the failure of Russia’s vaccination effort (regnum.ru/news/3327099.html and babr24.com/msk/?IDE=215398).

            Vaccines are running short in some regions because Moscow has decided to give priority to giving second shots to people, usually in the major cities, who have had at least one shot (egnum.ru/news/3327469.html).

            Meanwhile, the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church reported that the number of its religious who have been infected has risen to 5185 and the number who have died from covid now stands at 175 (regnum.ru/news/3327972.html).