Kremlin Says Pandemic Cost Russia, Other Countries, a Year of Development

Paul Goble

            Staunton, March 10 – Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says that the coronavirus pandemic cost Russia as it did most countries a year of growth (regnum.ru/news/3210623.html). Now, growth will resume, with economists projecting it to be in the two percent range in 2021 (regnum.ru/news/3210798.html).

            The Russian government reported registering 9079 new cases of infection and 466 new deaths. The former continues the downward trend of recent days; the latter is a bit higher than the recent average and enough to push the cumulative death count above 90,000 (t.me/COVID2019_official/2579).

            The pandemic continued to ebb and flow across the country. Moscow officials said the mask regime must remain in place for now (regnum.ru/news/society/3210111.html and regnum.ru/news/3211322.html). They also said that in the view of medical experts the coronavirus affects the entire body and those who are infected will require treatment for six to eight months (versia.ru/v-rossii-za-sutki-vyyavleno-9-079-novyx-sluchaev-zarazheniya-covid-19-i-zafiksirovano-466-letalnyx-isxodov).

            Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova added that it is now considered likely that residents will have to get annual inoculations against the coronavirus just as they do for the flu (regnum.ru/news/3210566.html).

            The defense ministry reported that more than 380,000 of its personnel have now been vaccinated, just under 40 percent of the total but a share dramatically higher than for the population as a whole let alone the primary age cohorts represented among uniformed personnel (regnum.ru/news/3211498.html).

            Russian analysts say joint vaccine production will tie the members of the Eurasian Economic Community closer together (ritmeurasia.org/news--2021-03-10--sovmestnoe-proizvodstvo-vakcin-mozhet-stat-drajverom-rosta-lekarstvennoj-sfery-v-eaes-53622). They were disappointed by France’s rejection of proposals for joint production (rfi.fr/ru/франция/20210310-в-париже-опровергли-производство-вакцины-cпутник-v-во-франции).

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

·         The European Commission has proposed legislation that would establish vaccination passports, a step that will put pressure on other countries including Russia to do the same (regnum.ru/news/3210893.html).

·         Mosfilm has announced plans to shoot a movie in Vladivostok about how that far eastern city has coped with the pandemic (regnum.ru/news/3210423.html).

·         Despite the continuing absence of foreign students, Moscow restaurants and service centers saw an increase in sales over the last month, an indication that more local residents are returning to these places (echo.msk.ru/news/2803094-echo.html).