Paul
Goble
Staunton, August 2 – Despite upbeat
claims of stabilization or improvement in the epidemiological situation in
Russia’s regions, virus specialist Anatoly Altshteyn says that the first wave
of the pandemic is only now beginning to hit Russia’s regions and will grow in
intensity in many for some time (ura.news/news/1052443329).
His
statement contradicts suggestions by Russian consumer affairs head Anna Popova
that coronavirus infections are increasing in only five regions and stabilizing
in all the rest (tass.ru/obschestvo/9104897) as well as claims by other Russian officials that
the pandemic is ending in Russia and that there won’t be any additional “wave”
(regnum.ru/news/3026253.html
and regnum.ru/news/3026199.html).
Altshteyn further warns that the
increases in the regions which he expects will go even higher are going to play
back into Moscow and other cities in the future and that whatever conditions
are like now, the pandemic will get worse there in the near future if the
situation in the regions is not addressed successfully.
Russian officials reported that
there were 5427 new cases of infection registered in the last 24 hours bringing
the cumulative total to 850,870, and 70 new deaths, bringing that toll to
14,128 (t.me/COVID2019_official/1186).
Pace Moscow, the ebb and flow of the
virus and of openings and closings continue (regnum.ru/news/society/3021975.html).
In Moscow itself, demand for masks
is increasing (regnum.ru/news/3026249.html),
although officials there and elsewhere are complaining that Russians are not wearing
masks or practicing social distance as they should if the pandemic is to be
brought under control (regnum.ru/news/3026227.html).
And as in many countries, the debate
in Russia is intensifying about how schools can open later this month or early
in September in ways that will not lead to the further spread of the virus and
to the illness or deaths of students and their families, teachers and other
school employees (regnum.ru/news/3026339.html
and regnum.ru/news/3026179.html).
More details surfaced about Moscow’s
plans for mass inoculations. While some Russians may get shots later this year,
most will not until early next year (regnum.ru/news/3026303.html,
ura.news/news/1052443320 and nation-news.ru/544160-proizvodstvo-rossiiskoi-vakciny-ot-koronavirusa-zapustyat-v-noyabre).
With regard to the economy,
officials reported that direct foreign investment in Russia had fallen more
than 95 percent since the beginning of the pandemic, prompting Vladimir Putin
to sign into law new rules giving the government even greater control over
where such funds go (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/78741).
One observer argued
that the population had forced the government to reopen the economy sooner than
the government wanted (forbes.ru/finansy-i-investicii/405859-koronavirus-otkryl-yashchik-pandory-zakryt-ekonomiki-okazalos-vozmozhno), and second said
the pandemic had exacerbated poverty in Russia while government aid in the US
had reduced it (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2020/08/02/86497-bednost-v-pandemiyu).
And a new survey reported that both
employers and employees are increasingly tired of work at home arrangements and
want to return to normal operations (ng.ru/economics/2020-08-02/4_7925_distance.html).
Meanwhile, in other pandemic-related
developments in Russia today,
·
Russia
and Abkhazia reopened the border between them, 7500 Russians entered that breakaway
republic in the first day, and the Abkhaz authorities warned of a possible
outbreak of the coronavirus caused by their arrival (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5F26A534E9F85
and rbc.ru/society/02/08/2020/5f27103f9a7947564e9294a3?from=from_main_4).
·
The
Russian Supreme Court refused to hear a class action suit by parents against
Vladimir Putin for not providing subsidies to children at home over the age of
16 (vsrf.ru/lk/practice/cases/10737985).
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