Even if Moscow Faces New Wave of Pandemic, City Officials Say They Don’t Plan to Impose New Restrictions

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 3 – Moscow now faces a sharp rise in the number of coronavirus infections, but city officials say that, even if this is the start of a new wave of the pandemic, they do not plan to introduce any new restrictions, an indication of how unpopular that would be (regnum.ru/news/3260104.html, regnum.ru/news/3260093.html and regnum.ru/news/3260076.html).

            Today, Russian officials reported that they had registered 8489 new cases of infection and 336 mew deaths from the coronavirus over the last 24 hours as increases hit some larger cities but numbers elsewhere remained steady or declined (t.me/COVID2019_official/2882, regnum.ru/news/society/3258922.html and regnum.ru/news/3260175.html).

            Russia did face three pandemic-related developments. First, the explosion of coronavirus cases in India has put on hold Moscow’s cooperation programs with New Delhi (vedomosti.ru/opinion/columns/2021/05/03/868643-epidemiya-razrushaet-plani-moskvi-i-deli). Second, debates on whether Russia should have covid passports (nakanune.ru/articles/116922/).

            And third, a Russian biologist says that one of the reasons many Russians who have not yet been vaccinated are reluctant to get their shots is that they don’t trust their country’s medical system and a major reason they don’t is the constant reorganizations it has been subject to under the rule of Vladimir Putin (rosbalt.ru/piter/2021/05/03/1900094.html).