New Infections in Russia Remain Above 20,000 for Second Day in a Row

Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 7 – For the second day in a row, Russian officials announced that they had registered more than new cases of coronavirus infection. Today, there were 20.396, down slightly from yesterday’s 20,582. In addition, there were 364 new deaths, pushing that toll up to 30,251 (стопкоронавирус.рф/information/).

            Many commentators and experts argued that the new figures understate the size of the problem (finanz.ru/novosti/aktsii/glava-minzdrava-progovorilsya-ob-istinnom-chisle-boleyushchikh-koronavirusom-rossiyan-1029777594 and krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/81423). But even the official figures are frightening officials.

            The Justice Ministry has submitted a draft law that will allow political parties to nominate people via Internet-assisted means, an indication that whatever the Kremlin says, Moscow is planning for the pandemic to be a dominating factor until “the middle of 2021 at a minimum” (ura.news/articles/1036281407).

            Today, the pandemic continued to spread across Russia, although there were fewer reports because it is a Saturday and also the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 (regnum.ru/news/society/3107229.html). Officials stressed that where people can’t maintain social distance, such as public transport, are now the chief transmission sites (regnum.ru/news/3109284.html).

            Moscow city officials said they don’t plan to close nightclubs and bars but will require patrons to submit contact information so they can be traced if infections break out in these locations. They also said that pressure on the city’s hospitals had eased slightly (ura.news/news/1052457625 and novayagazeta.ru/news/2020/11/07/165505-v-stolichnyh-bolnitsah-ostalos-30-svobodnyh-koek-dlya-bolnyh-koronavirusom).

            The inventors of the Sputnik-5 vaccine said it would be available in Moscow in about two weeks (regnum.ru/news/3109209.html).

            On the economic front, experts warned that deficit spending and the massive withdrawal of bank deposits is putting extraordinary pressure on prices and that a new wave of inflation is likely ahead (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/81415).

            Meanwhile, in other pandemic-related developments in Russia today,

·         Vladimir Putin spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron about cooperating in the fight against the pandemic (regnum.ru/news/3109398.html).

·         Putin decorated officials involved in the fight against the coronavirus, a move many felt was premature if not insulting to the victims of the pandemic (svpressa.ru/society/article/280800/).

·         And Russian media made much of a case in which a policeman injured a pensioner after the latter refused to put on a mask because he found it hard to breathe through the cloth (https://zona.media/news/2020/11/06/zigunov).