COVID-19 and Russia

With all that’s going on, I suppose it’s not unexpected that the US and China are slowing down the UN’s response to COVID-19 (each wanting to add verbiage that either blames China or champions China for it’s responsiveness to the COVID-19 Wuhan outbreak).

But one interesting fact that came out in this NBC News article is an insight into what’s going on in Russia.

Russia and Vladimir Putin (now attempting to be de facto President for life since he pushing a nationwide referendum on constitutional amendments that would make him president until 2036, now postponed due to COVID-19 [1]), have been very tight-lipped about the status of COVID-19 in Russia. But as the end of this quote of a NBC News article shows, COVID-19 is alive and well in Mother Russia.

U.S. insisting that the U.N. call out Chinese origins of coronavirus

NBC NEWS
March 25, 2020, 8:41 PM EDT
By Josh Lederman

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is pushing the U.N. Security Council to call attention to the Chinese origins of the coronavirus, four diplomats posted to the United Nations told NBC News, triggering a stalemate as the global body seeks to cobble together a response to the pandemic.

[…]

Complicating efforts has been Russia’s insistence that ambassadors show up in person at the Security Council to vote, contradicting public health guidance urging people to stay home and not to congregate in groups, diplomats from three Security Council nations said.
For more than a week, as other countries on the council directed nearly all their staff to work from home, Russia’s diplomats were still showing up at their mission in New York, the diplomats said. Meanwhile, they argued that virtual meetings were untenable, citing technical issues with the videoconferencing equipment.

Russia’s mission to the U.N. didn’t respond to a request for comment. But on Tuesday, the Russians dropped their insistence on in-person meetings, several diplomats said. The shift came the same day that Russian President Vladimir Putin, wearing a full protective suit and a respirator as he visited a hospital, was told by Moscow’s mayor that Russia has significantly more coronavirus patients than its official tally shows [emphasis added].(2)

Vladimir Putin, wearing a full protective suit and a respirator as he visits a hospital in Moscow.(3)

1. Hodge N. (March 25, 2020), Coronavirus deals blow to Putin’s plans to stay in power until 2036. Retrieved 26 March 2020, from the CNN website
   Site: cnn.com
   2) Lederman, J. (2020, March 26). U.S. insisting that the U.N. call out Chinese origins of coronavirus. Retrieved 26 March 2020, from NBC News website
   Site: nbcnews.com
   3) Photo Alexi Druzhinin/Sputnik/APF via Getty Images