Paul Goble
Staunton, Oct. 7 – Having said it is opposed to lockdowns, the Kremlin has now, through it spokesman Dmitry Peskov, says it has no plans to introduce measures designed to stimulate higher rates of vaccination, leaving the regions faced with fighting the pandemic with only masks (regnum.ru/news/3391859.html).
What is so shocking about this approach is that it is counter to the Kremlin’s own interest because it means that the pandemic will continue and that this will depress the Russian economy still further, a reality that Russian experts and the World Bank have already recognized (theins.ru/opinions/vasilii-vlasov/245305 and ng.ru/economics/2021-10-07/1_8272_covid.html).
Today, Russian officials reported registering 27,750 new cases of infection and 924 new deaths from the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, continuing the upward trend across the country and leading to ever more hospitals and now penal institution facilities for the infected overwhelmed (t.me/COVID2019_official/3643, regnum.ru/news/society/3387415.html, regnum.ru/news/3391850.html and znak.com/2021-10-07/sizo_1_v_ekaterinburge_perepolnen_nekotoryh_arestantov_mogut_otpravit_v_krasnoyarsk).
Meanwhile, in other pandemic-related developments in Russia today,
· Officials said that by November half of all the Russian vaccines being produced will be produced abroad rather than in Russia’s own overburdened pharmacological industry (regnum.ru/news/3392340.html).
· The Gorbachev Foundation announced that Mikhail Gorbachev has been in quarantine for more than a month to protect himself against the coronavirus (https://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/615f39789a794774dffe0d54).
· Moscow says it is close to resolving its disagreements with the WHO over the organization’s recognition of the Russian vaccines (t.me/bbbreaking/102121 and interfax.ru/russia/795925).
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