Paul Goble
Staunton, November 30 – A major reason why the Kremlin has had so little success in fighting the pandemic is that in contrast to earlier public health crises, it has been listening not to scientists but to political technologists who worry more about imagery than about curing people, medical expert Konstantin Yemeshin says (regnum.ru/news/3128077.html).
Indeed, Rosbalt commentator Sergey Shelin says, the top leadership of the country has shown itself in many ways to be incapable of dealing with a crisis, something he suggests will limit its ability to cope not only with phenomena like the coronavirus but policy issues across the board (rosbalt.ru/blogs/2020/11/30/1875579.html).
Today, Russian officials reported the registration of 26,338 new infections and 368 new deaths. Both figures are down slightly but likely reflect the impact of fewer examinations over the weekend than any turning of the corner, given that the pandemic continues to surge most places (t.me/COVID2019_official/2083 and regnum.ru/news/society/3128044.html).
But a new independent examination of health statistics suggest that 75,000 Russians have died from the coronavirus, roughly twice as many as the government says (znak.com/2020-11-30/mediazona_v_kovidnyh_bolnicah_rf_s_aprelya_umerli_pochti_75_tys_chelovek_eto_v_dva_raza_bolshe_ofici).
Officials in many places outside of Moscow announced new restrictions today, while those in Moscow did not (regnum.ru/news/society/3128044.html and
echo.msk.ru/news/2750550-echo.html).The central government did say it was allotting 10 billion more rubles (130 million US dollars) to pay medical personnel involved in fighting the pandemic (regnum.ru/news/3129020.html).
On the vaccine front, medical specialists said that mass production of the Sputnik-5 vaccine would begin only in the spring, citing the difficulties of manufacturing as the cause of the delay (regnum.ru/news/3128418.html and regnum.ru/news/3128341.html). They also reported that once vaccinated, Russians will become immune 42 days later (regnum.ru/news/3128381.html).
A sharp debate broke out among economists over whether the government has done enough to help business, whether unemployment will increase or not, and when the economy and personal incomes will recover, with the pessimists outweighing the optimists at least in the central media (regnum.ru/news/3128868.html, regnum.ru/news/3128780.html, regnum.ru/news/3128771.html, regnum.ru/news/3128767.html, regnum.ru/news/3128762.html, regnum.ru/news/3128239.html and svpressa.ru/economy/article/282622/).
Although he said the Kremlin does not plan additional assistance to business, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian authorities are in “constant dialogue” with the business community about how best to respond to the pandemic and other challenges (regnum.ru/news/3128543.html).
Meanwhile, in other pandemic-related developments in Russia today,
· The percentage of Russians who report experiencing fraud online has jumped from 25 percent last March to 54 percent now, a reflection of more fraud and more use of the Internet (regnum.ru/news/3128112.html).
· A Siberian virologist who reported that he had recorded coronavirus re-infections has attacked Moscow officials who say that there are no cases of that in the Russian Federation (siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/virology-professor-hits-back-at-russian-chief-doctors-claim-of-no-covid-19-reinfection-cases/).
· A strict regime prison camp near Murmansk has become a coronavirus hotspot, with 24 confirmed cases of the infection. Experts say that the situation there is especially dangerous because the quality of medical care for inmates is so low (severreal.org/a/30962306.html).
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