The Economist - USA (2021-07-10)

48 TheEconomistJuly10th 2021
Europe

Covid-19inRussia

How not to do it

F

or the past year the Kremlin has trum­

peted its success in fighting covid­19. It

eschewed lockdowns and hailed its home­

grown  Sputnik  V  vaccine.  In  early  June,

Vladimir  Putin,  the  Russian  president,

boasted  to  thousands  of  guests  at  the  St

Petersburg  International  Economic  Fo­

rum, billed as the world's largest post­pan­

demic  international  gathering,  that  “the

current  situation  in  Russia  allows  us  to

hold  such  events  without  any  particular

risk of spreading the infection.”

In  fact,  by  the  time  Mr  Putin  was  ad­

dressing his powwow, Russian doctors had

for  several  weeks  been  registering  an

alarming  rise  in  infections  and  deaths.  A

month  later,  Russia  is  in  the  midst  of  its

third  and  most  severe  wave  of  covid­19,

with  more  people  dying  daily  than  at  any

point during the pandemic (see chart). 

The  number  of  new  daily  cases  is  cur­

rently  around  25,000,  somewhat  fewer

than in Britain, and rising. But whereas in

Britain this surge has translated into an av­

erage of 18 daily deaths over the past week,

in  Russia  it  has  resulted  in  an  average  of

670 deaths a day.

Thecontrastisallthemorestrikingbe­

causeRussiawasthefirstcountryinthe

worldtoapprovea workingvaccine,one

basedonthesamescienceastheBritish­

SwedishAstraZenecaoneandapparently

just as effective. Butwhereasin Britain

78%ofthepopulationhasreceivedatleast

onejab,inRussiatheproportionisonly

20%.Thedifferenceisnottheavailability

ortheefficacyofthejab,butpeople’strust

inthegovernmentanditsvaccines.

Allofthiscouldhavebeenavoided.A

yearagothegovernmentdecidedtolifta

partiallockdown(MrPutincalledit “aholi­

day”),hopingtosaveitselfmoneyandto

propupthepresident’sfalteringpopulari­

tyaftera prolongedslumpinincomes.Mr

Putin’sratingsdidgobackup—butsodid

theriskofinfection.

AsthesecondwavehitEuropeinlate

autumnlastyear,theKremlinchosenotto

spendmoneyonsupporting peopleand

businessesthrougha newlockdown.It left

peopletotheirowndevices,playingdown

therisks,withMrPutinboastingaboutthe

contrastbetweenlifelessEuropeancities

andMoscow,whererestaurants,theatres

andshopsstayedopen.

Butthenumberslied.ByFebruary 2021

Russiahadoneoftheworld’shighestex­

cessmortalityrates,accordingtonumbers

compiledbyTheEconomist. Atthatpointit

hadregistered460,000moredeathsthan

normal, whileits official covid­19death

tollwasa moremodest85,000.Butbyinef­

fectremovingallrestrictionsandfiddling

thenumbers,thegovernmentmanagedto

createa falsesenseofsecurity.

Thiswasjustwhenpeopleshouldhave

beenurgedtogetvaccinated,saysDenis

VolkovoftheLevadaCentre,anindepen­

dentpollster.Despitethestaggeringtrue

numberofdeaths,inFebruaryhispolling

foundthat57%ofpeoplewerenotworried

aboutcatchingthevirus.Mostworryingly,

two­thirdsofthecountryrejectedtheidea

Hundreds of thousands are dead, partly thankstotheKremlin’sincompetence

→Alsointhissection

49 Erdoganunderfire

50 A cardinalgoesontrial

50 Folkfestivalsreturn

51 Charlemagne:Macronthe

surreptitioussocialist

Sputnik fails to launch

Russia, daily confirmed covid-19 cases and deaths

Seven-day moving average

Source:Johns Hopkins University CSSE

30

25

20

15

10

5

0

2020 2021

Cases, ’000

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

2020 2021

Deaths