Never one to let a bandwagon pass by, Vladimir Putin launched his own national vaccine programme the moment Britain said it was starting its roll-out. Given how badly Russia has been hit, you would expect it to be a popular move. But Russians themselves seem cautious, not least because they mistrust the Kremlin.
On Thursday, Russian health officials announced a new record of more than 28,000 coronavirus cases reported in a single day, bringing the total caseload to almost 2.4 million. Russia has the world’s fourth-worst case numbers, behind only the USA, India and Brazil, with over 41,000 deaths to date. Or at least 41,000 according to official statistics — confidential documents leaked to the press suggest the real figure is at least 75,000.
This points to a particular problem in Russia where a combination of reluctance to admit mistakes at the top of the system and a culture of cover-up in the regions means the government is often working off inaccurate data and the population habitually mistrusts the official line.
Russians have learnt to be suspicious of bullish official claims
That mistrust is already evident in reactions to Russia’s own, much-vaunted Sputnik V vaccine.
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