Coronavirus Russia: Vladimir Putin’s claim virus was under control backfires

Less than two months ago Vladimir Putin boasted his nation had the coronavirus pandemic under control. Now Russia has been devastated.

Natalie Brown

@natalieisbrown

3 min read

May 15, 2020 - 12:49PM

Putin's coronavirus crisis deepens as Russia becomes new global hotspot

At the end of March, leaders around the world came to terms with the devastating impact the coronavirus pandemic would have on their countries, shutting their borders, ordering residents to stay inside, and working frantically to boost the capacity of their healthcare systems.

But in Russia, President Vladimir Putin brushed off the risk of a widespread outbreak, insisting his nation had “managed to contain a mass invasion and spread of the disease”.

The head of Russia’s consumer rights and human wellbeing watchdog, Anna Popova, boasted at the end of April that the country’s mortality rate was “among the lowest in the world” (the death toll, which stands at 2305, is largely thought to be an undercount).

Russian state-run television channels relentlessly advertised the country’s effort to fight the virus as superior to Western nations’.

Less than two months later, more than a quarter of a million people are infected, with at least 10,000 new cases confirmed every day this week.

In Moscow, the city’s mayor has said the true number of cases could be as great as 300,000.

Russia, with its so-called handle on the virus pandemic, now has the second-highest number of infections in the world, after the United States.

“I think it’s safe to say that if you multiply the official death count by a factor of three, you will get a more or less true picture,” Aleksei Raksha, an independent demographer in Moscow, told NPR.

“It’s almost as if governors have declared no one’s allowed to die from COVID-19.”

In late March, Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted his nation had ‘managed to contain a mass invasion and spread’ of COVID-19. Now, at least a quarter of a million people are infected. Picture: Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/AFP

Russian political analyst at the Australian National University, Dr Kirill Nourzhanov, told the ABC the nation can be classified as the “late arriver” to the pandemic party.

Despite a mass shipment of medical equipment to Italy when it began recording thousands of deaths, Russia’s own doctors and nurses are now suffering from not only a shortage of protective gear and equipment – but access to ventilators that could be defective.

An internal federal government document obtained by The New York Times illuminated Russia’s lack of preparedness. Regional officials were sounding alarm bells about a drastic undersupply of PPE and confusion about how they were supposed to tackle the virus.

According to a region-by-region list of challenges compiled by the federal Emergency Situations Ministry on March 29, at least 28 of Russia’s 85 regions were reporting severe shortages of protective equipment, ventilators and testing materials.

A fire in the intensive care unit of a hospital in St Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city, further raised questions about the country’s response.

Five patients with coronavirus were killed in the blaze, which according to initial findings may have been caused by a short circuit in a ventilator or its malfunction, state news agencies said.

Medical workers get ready for a shift treating coronavirus patients at the Spasokukotsky clinical hospital in Moscow. Picture: Yuri Kadobnov/AFP

Wearing masks and gloves is now mandatory for residents visiting public places. Picture: Dmitri Lovetsky/AP

Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said earlier this week that 400 Russian hospitals had suffered outbreaks of COVID-19. In St Petersburg, more than one in six of the city’s total cases are health care workers.

“I think that, as of today, I know a handful of people who have not been sick,” Moscow cardiologist Dr Evgeny Zeltyn told The Times. “People are fighting. People are incredibly tired.”

“You didn’t realise how this transpires, how bad this can get,” one medical worker said, describing the experience of catching the coronavirus on the job, “when they don’t know what to do about it”.

Hospital workers aren’t the only ones. Members of Mr Putin’s inner circle continue to fall at the hands of the virus, with top spokesman Dmitry Peskov hospitalised on Tuesday after becoming the sixth Kremlin official to test positive. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has been in hospital for weeks.

A consistent surge in infections each day, however, did not deter the President from announcing earlier this week the end of a nationwide “non-working period”.

Shortly after health authorities reported the biggest one-day rise in infections, Mr Putin, who reportedly retreated to his home in suburban Moscow after coming into contact with a coronavirus-infected doctor and has rarely been seen in public since, said businesses that have been shuttered since March could reopen.

“Starting from tomorrow, May 12, the national period of non-working days will be over for all sectors of the economy,” Mr Putin said during a meeting with officials responsible for the country’s virus response.

Although he gave broad leeway to Russia’s regions to ease or tighten restrictions as they saw fit, he said it made sense for certain sectors of the bruised economy, such as construction and heavy industry, to be allowed to commence work.