“Epidemic of Disinformation” Around Sars-Cov-2: Are Russian Counteractions Effective Against COVID-19?

Abstract

Accusations concerning the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic are mounting between Western and Eastern countries, where Russia is far from being an exception. Division lines exist even within blocs of countries having very similar political, socio-economic and cultural identities. There are as many ways to handle the COVID-19 pandemic as governments, international organisations etc., but the necessity of at least some forms of lockdown is almost universally agreed. Unfortunately, instead of abandoning previous conflicts and maximising international cooperation to successfully contain the pandemic, minimising casualties and social stress, virtually all aspects of the pandemic become over-politicised and used to advance competing interests. Russia is an important part of the “blame-game”. Having a culture of strong presidential power, harsh measures had been introduced meeting compliance of most of the society. As of November 2020, the number of newly infected people was still rising quite rapidly and systematically. Thus, the effectiveness of Russian countermeasures to tackle the pandemic was debated not only in Russia, but around the world.