Staunton, December 7 – A comment by a health ministry official suggesting that Moscow was considering restricting movement from one region to another sparked a firestorm of objections, some support in places who fear an influx of infected from major cities, and then a denial by the ministry (regnum.ru/news/3134841.html, regnum.ru/news/3134727.html, regnum.ru/news/3134578.html and regnum.ru/news/3134464.html).
The anger at the very possibility such a measure might be under consideration and the rapidity with which the health ministry disowned the statement of its official shows just how sensitive any suggestion that the regime will impose new controls especially as the Russian Federation heads into the New Year’s holiday season.
The Russian authorities registered 28,142 new cases of infection and 456 new deaths from the coronavirus, bringing those totals respectively to 2,488,912 and 43,597 (t.me/COVID2019_official/2131). But former Rosstat head Aleksey Raksha says Russia has likely had 250,000 premature deaths from the pandemic (business-gazeta.ru/article/491270).
The pandemic continues to spread across Russia, hitting some places like St. Petersburg especially hard. The governor there says he has few tools left in his toolbox to fight the pandemic other than the restoration of a complete lockdown, something widely opposed by nonetheless expected (newsru.com/russia/07dec2020/beglov.html).
The Kremlin for its part announced that it had no plans to impose another countrywide lockdown (regnum.ru/news/3134686.html). Moscow has decided to extend restrictive rules on schools until January 2022, an indication that the authorities aren’t expecting any immediate end to the pandemic (regnum.ru/news/3135157.html).
A new survey finds that government employees are among the people most likely to become infected (regnum.ru/news/3134990.html). Other surveys find that businesses are very much opposed to a New Year’s quarantine (dailystorm.ru/vlast/biznes-idet-ploho-vlasti-regionov-ne-hotyat-ustraivat-novogodniy-karantin and sovsekretno.ru/news/onishchenko-prizval-sokratit-novogodnie-kanikuly/).
But perhaps the most disturbing new research finds that 75 percent of all coronavirus cases in Russia are not being treated at all by the medical system. Instead, they simply remain at home recovering or not depending on their conditions rather than receiving even minimal assistance (regnum.ru/news/3134752.html).
As massive inoculations begin, many Russians are saying they won’t get vaccinated until they see senior officials like Putin get the shots (svoboda.org/a/30986838.html). And despite all the promises that getting the shots will be voluntary, government agencies are being told to ensure that 60 percent of their employees do so (znak.com/2020-12-07/minzdrav_vakcinirovatsya_protiv_covid_19_dolzhny_minimum_60_federalnyh_chinovnikov).
Meanwhile, in other pandemic-related news in Russia today,
· Epidemiologists predict that Russia will suffer a third wave of the pandemic after the new year and that it will lead to 50 percent more infections and deaths than the first two (ura.news/news/1052462040).
· Political commentator Valery Solovey has been arrested for ten days for failing to wear a mask in St. Petersburg (newsru.com/russia/07dec2020/vsolovei.html).
· The Moscow Patriarchate reports that approximately 100 priests and higher-ranking churchmen have died from the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic (ahilla.ru/okolo-sta-klirikov-rpts-umerli-ot-kovida-s-aprelya-uveryaet-legojda/).
· And commentator Igor Yakovenko says that the pandemic has created “ideal conditions” for Vladimir Putin to impose a dictatorship on Russia (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5FCE02E978562).
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