Putin-Caused Shortage of Hospital Beds, Not Covid Pandemic, Responsible for Half of 660,000 Excess Russian Deaths in 2020-2021, Rosstat Data Show

Paul Goble

                Staunton, June 16 – New Rosstat data on deaths by region in 2020-2021 shows that approximately half of the increased mortality among Russians – at least 300,000 deaths – was the result of an inadequate number of hospital beds rather than the pandemic, a finding that shows Putin’s closure of medical facilities had more to do with the upsurge in mortality than covid.

                That conclusion is offered by a statistical analysis the Nakanune news agency now offers, one that is likely to have a serious impact on Russian public opinion which up to now had been largely shaped by the Kremlin’s insistence that the pandemic was the primary factor explaining the rise in Russian deaths (nakanune.ru/articles/119129/).

                Using complex mathematics, which the news agency details, analysts there agency assigned weight to the pandemic and the level of vaccination region to region as well as the availability of hospital beds, doctors and medical supplies among the more than 80 federal subjects of the Russian Federation.

                Various commentators had speculated about the impact of Putin’s health care “optimization” on Russian demography – see, for example, the discussion of its impact at  windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/01/putins-destruction-of-healthcare-system.html. But the Nakanune study takes this issue out of the realm of anecdote and suspicion.

               It shows that the excess deaths Russians are now suffering from, something Putin and others in his regime have been talking about in recent weeks, are the direct result of the Kremlin leader’s policies. Unless they are reversed in this area, the study suggests, Russians will continue to die prematurely at elevated rates well into the future.