Russian Siloviki Fully Vaccinated, Muscovites 32 Percent, Rest of Country Under 20 Percent

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 28 – Both Moscow’s priorities and its abilities to force some but not others to get the vaccine mean that nearly 100 percent of the Russian military  and force structures have been vaccinated against the coronavirus but only a third of Muscovites and fewer than 20 percent of Russian residents elsewhere have (rosbalt.ru/posts/2021/07/28/1913459.html).

            Those are official statistics, but the reality is probably not even that good because the regime has created a system to boost vaccinations that in fact has led many Russians to find a way around it. By requiring some to get certificates of vaccination, it has led to a situation in which even educated Russians feel challenged to come up with ways around it, often by purchasing fake certificates.

            Moreover, what the Kremlin has done to avoid becoming more unpopular with the population – shifting responsibility to the regions – the regions are now doing as well by shifting it to businesses. And as a result, the authorities are claiming more than the real number because the statistics are for them more important than the reality (regnum.ru/news/3331590.html).

            And even the system of prizes some governments are offering are not working as intended with people deciding that if the regime is offering something now to get results, it will offer even more later and deciding to wait so as to benefit from some future but unlikely largesse, or because the regions are running out of money to offer them  (regnum.ru/news/3331144.html and regnum.ru/news/3331103.html).

            If carrots don’t work perfectly, however, neither do sticks because restrictions of all kinds are only adding to popular anger without necessarily boosting the share of the population protected by vaccination, a trend leading some regions to reduce restrictions faster than the numbers justify (regnum.ru/news/3331398.html and ura.news/news/1052496532).

            Today, the Russian authorities reported registering 22,340 new cases of infection, as rates in Moscow fell dramatically, and 798 new deaths, as that lagging number remained high, over the last 24 hours as the pandemic ebbed and flowed across the country (t.me/COVID2019_official/3373 and  regnum.ru/news/society/3330437.html).

            The Kremlin said it has “no information” about the possible implementation of foreign vaccines (regnum.ru/news/3331639.html). But the defense ministry declared that the pandemic had not had any impact on Russia’s military-to-military cooperation with China (regnum.ru/news/3331127.html).