Paul Goble
Staunton, June 28 – Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov continues to say that “there is no de jure or de facto obligatory vaccination in Russia,” even though there clearly is. His duplicity is infuriating Russians and thus failing to secure the political protection it is intended. But it may help Russian officials avoid financial responsibilities.
The Internet has reacted sharply at what many see as the duplicity of the Kremlin, but few have pointed out that Peskov’s words like those of subordinate officials appear intended to prevent any claims for government compensation to succeed. And that may be very much on the minds of people in the Kremlin.
On the Kremlin’s avoidance of responsibility as Russia heads into the worst week of the pandemic, see regnum.ru/news/3307600.html, regnum.ru/news/3307211.html, regnum.ru/news/3307243.html and regnum.ru/news/3307286.html. On how that protects regime from claims against it, see novayagazeta.ru/articles/2021/06/28/tot-kogo-nelzia-obiavliat.
Other Russian officials are picking up on the Kremlin line, with Health Minister Mikhail Murashkov even declaring today that the restrictions in Russia the government has imposed because of the pandemic are “extremely soft,” a characterization few Russians who are confronted by them would agree with (regnum.ru/news/3307485.html).
Today, Russian officials reported registering 21,650 new cases of infection and 611 new deaths from the coronavirus, both daily records, with just under half of these in Moscow and Moscow Oblast (t.me/COVID2019_official/3163). Officials also reported that the number of Russians who have been vaccinated has risen to 23 million (regnum.ru/news/3307489.html).
The pandemic continued to spread and intensify in many places across the Russian Federation (regnum.ru/news/society/3305995.html), the result, one expert says, of lagging vaccination rates, opposition to restrictions, and the arrival of new coronavirus strains in the country (regnum.ru/news/3306874.html).
Internet commentaries say that Russians already feel “divided” into two classes, those who have been vaccinated and those who have not, a feeling exacerbated by the distribution of QR codes for entrance into restaurants, something 64 percent of Muscovites say they don’t approve of (regnum.ru/news/3306711.html, regnum.ru/news/3307379.html, regnum.ru/news/3307549.html and egnum.ru/news/3307034.html).
The situation in the northern capital has become especially dire with 1000 residents now being hospitalized each day, a large share of them among younger people (regnum.ru/news/3307733.html and regnum.ru/news/3307738.html). But the situation is even worse far more the major urban centers of the country.
Buryatia, for example, has an effective lockdown and has set up roadblocks to prevent people who haven’t been vaccinated from moving about, and Daghestan is quarantining entire villages in its mountainous regions (regnum.ru/news/3306947.html and regnum.ru/news/3306969.html).
Moscow did announce that it was resuming regular air connections with eight countries, including the US, but that reopening may mean less than it hopes because Germany has announced that it doesn’t consider Russia’s Sputnik-5 medication to be a vaccine and thus won’t let those without vaccinations of other kinds enter (regnum.ru/news/3306876.html and natpressru.info/index.php?newsid=12487).
On the vaccine front, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said his city had plenty of vaccine on hand, although some regions of Russia have run out (regnum.ru/news/3306926.html). A poll shows 16 percent of Russians are prepared to get vaccinated if foreign vaccines are available, something the Russian government is blocking (https://regnum.ru/news/3307239.html and trtrussian.com/magazine/izolyaciya-vakcinoj-pochemu-v-rf-ne-puskayut-zarubezhnye-preparaty-ot-covid-19-5889071).
One consequence of the Russian government’s restrictions on the importation of medicines is that prices for all medicines are increasing inside Russia at twice the rate of overall official inflation (ehorussia.com/new/node/23765).
Ever more Russians are buying fake vaccination certificates, despite government efforts to prevent them and expert warnings that this will lead to a further deterioration in the epidemiological situation in Russia (severreal.org/a/rossiyane-pokupayut-spravki-o-privivke/31325815.html).
Also today, another religious denomination announced it was introducing mandatory vaccinations among its clergy. The Federation of the Jewish Communities of Russia (FEOR) said it had now put such a requirement in place (credo.press/237908/).
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