themoscowtimes--2020-08-10--Russia's Coronavirus Cases Approach 900K as Deaths Surpass 15K

Russia confirmed 5,118 new coronavirus infections Monday , bringing the country ’ s official number of cases to 892,654 .
@ @ @ @ @ 70 people have died , bringing the total official toll to 15,001 .
Separate figures @ @ @ @ @ s statistics agency Rosstat found that the number of deaths from the virus could be @ @ @ @ @ tally , updated daily by the country ’ s coronavirus task force .
It found @ @ @ @ @ died during June alone , with the virus confirmed or believed to be the main @ @ @ @ @ than 7,000 cases , while the task force figures showed only 4,880 for the same @ @ @ @ @ 3,259 people recovered over the last 24 hours .

The highest number of new cases were in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Russia's fatality rate has remained low compared to other badly-hit countries, raising speculation that Moscow could be underreporting figures.
Russian authorities began easing anti-virus measures in June ahead of a massive World War II military parade in Moscow and a nationwide vote on constitutional reforms that now allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036.
Both events were initially postponed due the epidemic.
Moscow opened cinemas and theaters on Aug. 1. In the capital, masks are mandatory in stores and on public transport but not in the streets.
Several institutes in Russia are working on a coronavirus vaccine.
The Russian Defense Ministry has said it developed a "safe" vaccine following clinical trials on a group of volunteers.
The trials are ongoing, and the Defense Ministry expects clinical trials to be fully completed in the coming weeks.
AFP contributed reporting to this article.


themoscowtimes--2020-08-10--News From Russia: What You Missed Over the Weekend

Police in Belarus broke up crowds of protesters with stun grenades and rubber bullets as longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko looked set to declare an overwhelming victory in a presidential poll his opponents say was rigged .
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of the capital Minsk and other cities after a state exit poll showed Lukashenko winning just under 80 % in Sunday 's election , with main challenger Svetlana Tikhanovskaya coming second with about 7 % .
Government buildings in Minsk had been cordoned off , residents reported internet shutdowns and widespread connection problems , and social media @ @ @ @ @ @ @ roads leading into the capital .
At least one protester was killed during the crackdown and dozens were hospitalized with injuries , the Viasna human rights group said .
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Russia 's Far East for a fifth consecutive weekend as anti-Kremlin rallies sparked by the arrest of a popular governor showed little sign of dying down Saturday .
Authorities in cities including Moscow , St. Petersburg and Omsk detained at least 31 supporters of the demonstrators in Khabarovsk , a city of some 600,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has declared an income of 148 million rubles ( $ 2 million ) earned in 2019 , nearly 20 times the amount he declared the previous year .
His wife Medni Kadyrova ’ s earnings were reported to have increased by 4,000 % .
Around 3,000 residents of central Russia ’ s republic of Bashkortostan gathered at the foothill of a local natural landmark Sunday to protest plans to convert it for limestone production .
The protest erupted after the Bashkir soda company was reported to have sent felling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) last week .
Alrosa has announced the discovery of the world ’ s largest natural colored diamond in the Russian Far East republic of Sakha .
The yellow-brown diamond weighing 236 carats measures 47x24x22 millimeters is estimated to be between 120 million and 230 million years old .

Belarus on edge Police in Belarus broke up crowds of protesters with stun grenades and rubber bullets as longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko looked set to declare an overwhelming victory in a presidential poll his opponents say was rigged. Thousands of protesters took to the streets of the capital Minsk and other cities after a state exit poll showed Lukashenko winning just under 80% in Sunday's election, with main challenger Svetlana Tikhanovskaya coming second with about 7%.
Government buildings in Minsk had been cordoned off, residents reported internet shutdowns and widespread connection problems, and social media posts showed columns of military vehicles on roads leading into the capital. At least one protester was killed during the crackdown and dozens were hospitalized with injuries, the Viasna human rights group said. Fifth week of protests Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Russia's Far East for a fifth consecutive weekend as anti-Kremlin rallies sparked by the arrest of a popular governor showed little sign of dying down Saturday. Authorities in cities including Moscow, St. Petersburg and Omsk detained at least 31 supporters of the demonstrators in Khabarovsk, a city of some 600,000 people on the border with China.
Igor Volkov / AP / TASS


themoscowtimes--2020-08-10--Man Killed in New Belarus Protests Over Disputed Election

One man died Monday in Belarus where police fired rubber bullets and tear gas for a second day to quash protests against a disputed weekend presidential election which handed a sixth term to strongman Alexander Lukashenko .
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya — a political novice who has managed to galvanize the opposition — called on Lukashenko , in power since 1994 , to step down , saying she had won Sunday 's vote .
The whereabouts of Tikhanovskaya , a 37-year-old mother of two , were not known to her campaign staff on Monday night , her spokeswoman told AFP .
She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ authorities jailed her husband , popular blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky , and barred him from running .
Tikhanovskaya had earlier said she would not take part in the demonstrations that have been brutally quashed , leading to widespread Western condemnation .
Police said a protester died when an explosive device went off in his hand Monday night , confirming the first casualty of post-election protests .
`` One of the protesters tried to throw an unidentified exlosive device at members of law enforcement .
It exploded in his hand , '' the interior ministry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his injuries .
Several thousand protesters took to the streets of the capital Minsk for a second night of post-election rallies , with opposition supporters shouting `` Shame ! ''
and `` Long Live Belarus ! ''
and waving flags or honking their cars .
Police in full riot gear fired tear gas and rubber bullets on them and injured a female journalist , a witness told AFP .
Blasts that sounded like stun grenades were also heard .
Independent Belarusian media including tut.by also reported the use of force , saying some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whose surprise candidacy posed the biggest challenge to Lukashenko in years , said the vote had been rigged .
`` The authorities should think about how to peacefully hand over power to us , '' she told reporters .
`` I consider myself the winner of this election . ''
Later Monday Tikhanovskaya went to lodge a complaint with the Central Election Commission where she spent three hours , her spokeswoman Anna Krasulina told AFP .
After leaving the commission headquarters Tikhanovskaya has gone incommunicado , said Krasulina without providing further details .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ could not reach Tikhanovskaya for several hours late Monday .
`` I tried to reach her for several hours but her whereabouts are unknown since she went to the election commission to file a protest over the vote count , '' Linas Linkevicius told AFP late Monday .
`` It raises concern about her safety , '' Linkevicius told AFP .
Earlier Monday , election officials confirmed Lukashenko 's re-election for a sixth term , saying he had won more than 80 % of the vote , with Tikhanovskaya coming second with 10 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ boss has ruled ex-Soviet Belarus since 1994 , stamping out dissent and earning the nickname of `` Europe 's last dictator . ''
The White House said Monday it was `` deeply concerned , '' adding that `` intimidation of opposition candidates and the detention of peaceful protesters '' were among numerous factors that marred the election and its aftermath .
European governments also questioned the results , with Germany voicing `` strong doubts '' about the conduct of the vote and France urging restraint .

One man has died in protests in Belarus as demonstrators clashed with police for a second night after a disputed election handed a sixth term to strongman Alexander Lukashenko. Thousands took to the streets of the capital Minsk Monday night, saying Lukashenko had stolen the election from his surprise challenger, political novice Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.
Разгон возле Пушкинской — взрывы и силовики. pic.twitter.com/0Z6B22P5D0 — TUT.BY (@tutby) August 10, 2020
Police used rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas but demonstrators fought back with stones and fireworks and built makeshift barricades, AFP reporters, protesters and witnesses said, in chaotic scenes of defiance in the authoritarian former Soviet republic. "Too many people are against Lukashenko," Pavel, a 34-year-old protester, told AFP. "Our goal is to depose Lukashenko. He is not worthy of being president." At one flashpoint in Minsk, protesters — mostly men but also several women — used sacks, buckets and metal barriers to build barricades, an AFP photographer said. The whereabouts of Tikhanovskaya — who has claimed victory in Sunday's poll and called for Lukashenko to step down — were unknown as of late Monday. A man died when an explosive device went off in his hand Monday night, police said, confirming the first casualty of the post-election protests. "One of the protesters tried to throw an unidentified explosive device at members of law enforcement. It exploded in his hand," the interior ministry said, adding that he died of his injuries. A police spokeswoman could not immediately say how many people had been injured in Monday's clashes.
Tikhanovskaya had said earlier she would not take part in the demonstrations to avoid "provocations." "The authorities should think about how to peacefully hand over power to us," she told reporters. The 37-year-old mother of two decided to run for president after the authorities jailed her husband, popular blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, and barred him from contesting. Her campaign galvanized the opposition, presenting the most serious challenge to former collective farm director Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since 1994, brooking no dissent and earning the nickname of "Europe's last dictator." Whereabouts unknown Tikhanovskaya's whereabouts were not known to her campaign staff on Monday night, her spokeswoman Anna Krasulina told AFP. On Monday Tikhanovskaya went to lodge a complaint with the Central Election Commission where she spent three hours, Krasulina told AFP. After leaving the commission headquarters she had gone incommunicado, Krasulina added, without providing further details. The foreign minister of EU member Lithuania, another ex-Soviet republic, said he could not reach Tikhanovskaya as of late Monday. "I tried to reach her for several hours but her whereabouts are unknown since she went to the election commission to file a protest over the vote count," Linas Linkevicius told AFP. "It raises concern about her safety," Linkevicius said. Earlier Monday, election officials confirmed Lukashenko's re-election for a sixth term, saying he had won more than 80% of the vote, with Tikhanovskaya coming second with 10%. White House 'deeply concerned' The White House said Monday it was "deeply concerned," adding that "intimidation of opposition candidates and the detention of peaceful protesters" were among numerous factors that marred the election and its aftermath. European governments also questioned the results, with Germany voicing "strong doubts" about the conduct of the vote and France urging restraint. But Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Lukashenko, a longtime ally, as did Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Lukashenko was defiant, vowing he would not allow Belarus to be "torn apart." "We recorded calls from abroad. There were calls from Poland, Britain and the Czech Republic, they were directing our — forgive me — sheep," Lukashenko said.
news How the World Has Reacted to Belarus Presidential Vote Read more


themoscowtimes--2020-08-10--Slovakia Expels 3 Russian Diplomats

Slovakia Expels 3 Russian Diplomats

`` I can confirm that a decision has been taken to expel three employees of the embassy of the Russian Federation in Slovakia , '' Juraj Tomaga , head of the foreign ministry 's press department , told AFP .
Slovakia said Monday it had expelled three Russian diplomats for `` a serious crime , '' with local media reporting a possible link with the killing of a former Chechen rebel in a Berlin park last year .
`` According to information from the Slovak intelligence services , their activities were in conflict with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said that a visa issued by the Slovak consulate in St. Petersburg in Russia had been `` misused and a serious crime was committed in the territory of another NATO and EU member state . ''
The spokesman did not provide further details .
Russia said it would respond to the expulsions `` in a similar way , '' Russian media reported .
Slovakia 's Dennik N daily said the Slovak consulate in St. Petersburg last year issued visas that allowed into the European Union a Russian citizen who was later suspected of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in Berlin 's Kleiner Tiergarten park .
German police arrested a suspect shortly after the shooting and prosecutors have accused Russia of ordering the murder — a claim dismissed as `` unfounded '' by Moscow .
Investigative website Bellingcat earlier named the suspect as Vadim Krasikov , saying he was a contract killer who grew up in Kazakhstan when it was part of the Soviet Union before moving to Siberia .

"I can confirm that a decision has been taken to expel three employees of the embassy of the Russian Federation in Slovakia," Juraj Tomaga, head of the foreign ministry's press department, told AFP.
Slovakia said Monday it had expelled three Russian diplomats for "a serious crime," with local media reporting a possible link with the killing of a former Chechen rebel in a Berlin park last year.
"According to information from the Slovak intelligence services, their activities were in conflict with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations," he said.
Tomaga also said that a visa issued by the Slovak consulate in St. Petersburg in Russia had been "misused and a serious crime was committed in the territory of another NATO and EU member state."
The spokesman did not provide further details.
Russia said it would respond to the expulsions "in a similar way," Russian media reported.
Slovakia's Dennik N daily said the Slovak consulate in St. Petersburg last year issued visas that allowed into the European Union a Russian citizen who was later suspected of killing Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a Georgian national, in Berlin's Kleiner Tiergarten park.
German police arrested a suspect shortly after the shooting and prosecutors have accused Russia of ordering the murder — a claim dismissed as "unfounded" by Moscow.
Investigative website Bellingcat earlier named the suspect as Vadim Krasikov, saying he was a contract killer who grew up in Kazakhstan when it was part of the Soviet Union before moving to Siberia.


themoscowtimes--2020-08-10--Belarus Police Fire Rubber Bullets, Tear Gas on Protesters

Several thousand protesters took to the streets of the capital Minsk for a second night of post-election rallies , with opposition supporters shouting and hundreds of cars honking their horns and waving flags .
Belarus police on Monday used rubber bullets and tear gas to break up fresh protests challenging the result of a controversial weekend presidential election , witnesses and reports said .
Some shouted `` Shame '' and `` Long live Belarus , '' an AFP correspondent said from the scene .
Police in full riot gear moved against the rallies , firing tear gas and rubber bullets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ journalist , a witness told AFP .
A blast from an apparent stun grenade was also heard .
Independent Belarusian media including tut.by reported the use of force .
On Sunday night , thousands also took to the streets of Minsk and other cities to denounce the vote , sparking clashes with members of law enforcement .
Police said they detained some 3,000 people , around 1,000 of them in Minsk .
Shocking images released by pro-opposition media and posted online showed police firing stun grenades and rubber bullets into the crowds and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and running down a protester .
The Belarusian Investigative Committee said on Monday it had opened 21 criminal probes into `` mass unrest '' and using violence against police and detained more than 80 people .
`` Most of them are young people aged 20-25 , '' investigators said in a statement .

Several thousand protesters took to the streets of the capital Minsk for a second night of post-election rallies, with opposition supporters shouting and hundreds of cars honking their horns and waving flags.
Belarus police on Monday used rubber bullets and tear gas to break up fresh protests challenging the result of a controversial weekend presidential election, witnesses and reports said.
Some shouted "Shame" and "Long live Belarus," an AFP correspondent said from the scene.
Police in full riot gear moved against the rallies, firing tear gas and rubber bullets on peaceful protesters and injuring a female journalist, a witness told AFP.
A blast from an apparent stun grenade was also heard.
Independent Belarusian media including tut.by reported the use of force.
On Sunday night, thousands also took to the streets of Minsk and other cities to denounce the vote, sparking clashes with members of law enforcement.
Police said they detained some 3,000 people, around 1,000 of them in Minsk.
Shocking images released by pro-opposition media and posted online showed police firing stun grenades and rubber bullets into the crowds and a police van ramming into the demonstration and running down a protester.
The Belarusian Investigative Committee said on Monday it had opened 21 criminal probes into "mass unrest" and using violence against police and detained more than 80 people.
"Most of them are young people aged 20-25," investigators said in a statement.


themoscowtimes--2020-08-10--Belarus Poll Challenger Asks Strongman Lukashenko to Cede Power

`` The voters made their choice but the authorities did not hear us , '' Tikhanovskaya told a press conference after police used stun grenades , water cannon and rubber bullets to disperse crowds in Minsk and other cities .
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya , whose surprise candidacy posed the biggest challenge to the veteran leader in years , said Sunday 's presidential vote had been rigged and accused authorities of resorting to force to cling to power .
The main challenger in Belarus 's disputed election on Monday called on President Alexander Lukashenko to cede power but said she would not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up by police , attracting widespread condemnation in Europe .
`` The authorities should think about how to peacefully hand over power to us , '' she said .
`` I consider myself the winner of this election . ''
There were calls on pro-opposition social media accounts for labour strikes and hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Minsk on Monday night .
Tikhanovskaya 's spokeswoman said she would not join demonstrations .
`` Authorities can create any provocative situation to detain her and we need her to be free , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ AFP journalist in Minsk said the area near the war memorial where protesters had gathered on Sunday had been sealed off and several central subway stations closed .
Election officials confirmed Lukashenko 's re-election to a sixth term on Monday morning , saying he had won more than 80 % of the vote , with Tikhanovskaya coming second with 10 % .
The 65-year-old former collective farm boss has ruled ex-Soviet Belarus since 1994 , stamping out dissent and earning the nickname of `` Europe 's last dictator . ''
European governments questioned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ strong doubts '' about the conduct of the vote and France urging restraint .
Britain said the election was `` seriously flawed '' and urged authorities to `` refrain from further acts of violence , '' while Belarus 's neighbor Poland called for an emergency EU summit on the situation .
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that after having previously lifted sanctions on Belarus , the EU should review `` whether this can still be valid in the light of the past weeks and days . ''
But Russian President Vladimir Putin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as did Chinese leader Xi Jinping .
Lukashenko was defiant , vowing he would not allow Belarus to be `` torn apart '' and denouncing the protesters as foreign pawns .
`` We recorded calls from abroad .
There were calls from Poland , Britain and the Czech Republic , they were directing our — forgive me — sheep , '' Lukashenko told the head of an election observation delegation from ex-Soviet countries .
Tikhanovskaya , a 37-year-old stay-at-home mother and political novice , attracted tens of thousands of supporters to the country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ took to the streets of Minsk and other cities on Sunday night to denounce the vote , sparking clashes with members of law enforcement .

The main challenger in Belarus's disputed election on Monday called on President Alexander Lukashenko to cede power but said she would not join demonstrations that have been brutally broken up by police, attracting widespread condemnation in Europe. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, whose surprise candidacy posed the biggest challenge to the veteran leader in years, said Sunday's presidential vote had been rigged and accused authorities of resorting to force to cling to power. "The voters made their choice but the authorities did not hear us," Tikhanovskaya told a press conference after police used stun grenades, water cannon and rubber bullets to disperse crowds in Minsk and other cities.
"The authorities should think about how to peacefully hand over power to us," she said. "I consider myself the winner of this election." There were calls on pro-opposition social media accounts for labour strikes and hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Minsk on Monday night. Tikhanovskaya's spokeswoman said she would not join demonstrations. "Authorities can create any provocative situation to detain her and we need her to be free," Anna Krasulina told AFP. An AFP journalist in Minsk said the area near the war memorial where protesters had gathered on Sunday had been sealed off and several central subway stations closed. Election officials confirmed Lukashenko's re-election to a sixth term on Monday morning, saying he had won more than 80% of the vote, with Tikhanovskaya coming second with 10%. The 65-year-old former collective farm boss has ruled ex-Soviet Belarus since 1994, stamping out dissent and earning the nickname of "Europe's last dictator." EU sanctions warning European governments questioned the results, with Germany voicing "strong doubts" about the conduct of the vote and France urging restraint. Britain said the election was "seriously flawed" and urged authorities to "refrain from further acts of violence," while Belarus's neighbor Poland called for an emergency EU summit on the situation. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that after having previously lifted sanctions on Belarus, the EU should review "whether this can still be valid in the light of the past weeks and days." But Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Lukashenko, a longtime ally, as did Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Lukashenko was defiant, vowing he would not allow Belarus to be "torn apart" and denouncing the protesters as foreign pawns. "We recorded calls from abroad. There were calls from Poland, Britain and the Czech Republic, they were directing our — forgive me — sheep," Lukashenko told the head of an election observation delegation from ex-Soviet countries. Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old stay-at-home mother and political novice, attracted tens of thousands of supporters to the country's biggest demonstrations in years. Thousands took to the streets of Minsk and other cities on Sunday night to denounce the vote, sparking clashes with members of law enforcement.
news Belarus Strongman Faces Surprise Challenge in Tense Vote Read more


themoscowtimes--2020-08-10--Belarus Plant Workers Go on Strike After Contested Vote – Reports

Belarus ’ longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko claimed an overwhelming victory after Sunday ’ s vote , while his main challenger said it had been rigged and called on him to give up power .
Major clashes broke out between pro-opposition protesters and law enforcement officials in Minsk and other cities after the vote .
Workers at a major steel plant in Belarus have gone on strike over the country ’ s contentious presidential election that they described as “ unfair , ” Belarusian media reported Monday .
Belarusian Steel Works ( BMZ ) in the southeastern region of Gomel partially @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outlet reported .
The Nexta Telegram channel published photographs of workers in BMZ uniforms standing around at one of the plant ’ s units and reported that the workers called on supporters from other factories to join them in striking .
Last month , Nexta shared a photograph of a written warning by BMZ workers that they would strike from Aug. 10-12 “ in the event of unfair elections.
” “ We want to LIVE and not exist !
!
!
” they wrote in the notice circulated on July 24 .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unnamed sources , that at least two BMZ units have suspended work .
The plant employs around 11,000 people and is one of the five largest companies in Belarus in terms of output .
The workers went back to work a few hours after the partial suspension , opting to send a letter to Minsk urging to hold fair elections , Russia ’ s Dozhd television channel reported .
Their employer was reported to have vowed not to punish or fire them .

Belarus’ longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko claimed an overwhelming victory after Sunday’s vote, while his main challenger said it had been rigged and called on him to give up power. Major clashes broke out between pro-opposition protesters and law enforcement officials in Minsk and other cities after the vote.
Workers at a major steel plant in Belarus have gone on strike over the country’s contentious presidential election that they described as “unfair,” Belarusian media reported Monday.
Belarusian Steel Works (BMZ) in the southeastern region of Gomel partially suspended operations Monday, the tut.by news outlet reported.
The Nexta Telegram channel published photographs of workers in BMZ uniforms standing around at one of the plant’s units and reported that the workers called on supporters from other factories to join them in striking.
Last month, Nexta shared a photograph of a written warning by BMZ workers that they would strike from Aug. 10-12 “in the event of unfair elections.”
“We want to LIVE and not exist!!!” they wrote in the notice circulated on July 24.
The Sputnik Belarus news website reported, citing unnamed sources, that at least two BMZ units have suspended work.
The plant employs around 11,000 people and is one of the five largest companies in Belarus in terms of output.
The workers went back to work a few hours after the partial suspension, opting to send a letter to Minsk urging to hold fair elections, Russia’s Dozhd television channel reported. Their employer was reported to have vowed not to punish or fire them.


themoscowtimes--2020-08-10--Lukashenko: Tainted Strongman on Europe's Doorstep

The 65-year-old won a sixth term in Sunday polls , according to the official results , and brutally crushed protests by opponents who claim he rigged the vote .
Strongman Alexander Lukashenko has ruled over ex-Soviet Belarus for nearly three decades and says he can not bear to part with his `` beloved '' country .
Ordinary Belarusians and independent observers accuse him of stealing the election from 37-year-old Svetlana Tikhanovskaya , who has emerged as the leader of the protest movement against his rule .
As Europe 's longest-serving non-royal leader , he has held onto power since 1994 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ahead of Sunday 's poll and afterwards vowed he would not allow opponents to `` tear the country apart . ''
During an animated address to the nation last week , Lukashenko wiped sweat from his brow as he accused the opposition of planning mass riots in the capital Minsk .
`` We will not give the country to you , '' he said , speaking in front of a glum-faced audience of officials , church leaders and military personnel .
He likened Belarus to a woman , saying `` You do n't @ @ @ @ @ @ @ post-election protests in which dozens were injured and a prominent rights group said that one man was killed , Lukashenko defended the use of force .
`` Why weep and cry now ? ''
he said .
A father of three , Lukashenko often attends official events with his youngest son , 15-year-old Nikolai .
His latest election declaration said that he is still legally married although he is never seen in public with the wife he wed in 1975 .
He has insisted that Belarus is not ready for a woman leader @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , poor thing , '' he said .
Amnesty International has accused Lukashenko 's government of `` misogyny '' and targeting female activists with discriminatory tactics .
Lukashenko has been known for his blunt-speaking folksiness and the former collective farm director is routinely pictured in rural settings like tractor factories or potato fields .
Despite tens of thousands of coronavirus infections , he has dismissed the pandemic as a hoax and refused to introduce a lockdown or postpone the election .
He has offered dubious tips on avoiding the virus , recommending driving @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and taking steam baths .
Lukashenko has kept his landlocked homeland wedged between Russia and EU member Poland largely stuck in a Soviet time warp .
A quarter of a century after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. the tightly controlled eastern European nation still has a security service called the KGB , adheres to a command economy and looks to former master Moscow as its main ally , creditor and energy provider .
But Lukashenko has not been afraid to cross swords with the Kremlin as he nervously eyed its intervention in neighboring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the West .
In February , he welcomed U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo , making the first visit to Belarus by a U.S. Secretary of State since 1994 .

The 65-year-old won a sixth term in Sunday polls, according to the official results, and brutally crushed protests by opponents who claim he rigged the vote.
Strongman Alexander Lukashenko has ruled over ex-Soviet Belarus for nearly three decades and says he cannot bear to part with his "beloved" country.
Ordinary Belarusians and independent observers accuse him of stealing the election from 37-year-old Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who has emerged as the leader of the protest movement against his rule.
Critics call the mustachioed leader "the cockroach."
As Europe's longest-serving non-royal leader, he has held onto power since 1994.
He detained his main opposition rivals ahead of Sunday's poll and afterwards vowed he would not allow opponents to "tear the country apart."
During an animated address to the nation last week, Lukashenko wiped sweat from his brow as he accused the opposition of planning mass riots in the capital Minsk.
"We will not give the country to you," he said, speaking in front of a glum-faced audience of officials, church leaders and military personnel.
He likened Belarus to a woman, saying "You don't hand over your beloved."
'Why cry now?'
After post-election protests in which dozens were injured and a prominent rights group said that one man was killed, Lukashenko defended the use of force.
"Why weep and cry now?" he said.
A father of three, Lukashenko often attends official events with his youngest son, 15-year-old Nikolai. His latest election declaration said that he is still legally married although he is never seen in public with the wife he wed in 1975.
He has insisted that Belarus is not ready for a woman leader.
A female president "would collapse, poor thing," he said.
Amnesty International has accused Lukashenko's government of "misogyny" and targeting female activists with discriminatory tactics.
Lukashenko has been known for his blunt-speaking folksiness and the former collective farm director is routinely pictured in rural settings like tractor factories or potato fields.
Despite tens of thousands of coronavirus infections, he has dismissed the pandemic as a hoax and refused to introduce a lockdown or postpone the election.
He has offered dubious tips on avoiding the virus, recommending driving tractors in the countryside, drinking vodka and taking steam baths.
Between Russia and West
Lukashenko has kept his landlocked homeland wedged between Russia and EU member Poland largely stuck in a Soviet time warp.
A quarter of a century after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. the tightly controlled eastern European nation still has a security service called the KGB, adheres to a command economy and looks to former master Moscow as its main ally, creditor and energy provider.
But Lukashenko has not been afraid to cross swords with the Kremlin as he nervously eyed its intervention in neighboring Ukraine and has sought to mend fences with the West.
In February, he welcomed U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, making the first visit to Belarus by a U.S. Secretary of State since 1994.


themoscowtimes--2020-08-11--Six Months into the Coronavirus Outbreak, Russia’s Statistics Still Provide More Questions than Answ

Six Months into the Coronavirus Outbreak, Russia’s Statistics Still Provide More Questions than Answers

The death toll from the coronavirus across many Russian regions could be many times higher than official statistics show , analysis of new data by The Moscow Times suggests .
Experts pointed to systemic underreporting of deaths , and highlighted a complex incentive structure and political relationship between the Kremlin and Russia ’ s governors in the regions .
They believe that by discouraging regions from reporting bad news , insisting they keep the virus under control and providing loose guidelines on how to count deaths , Russia has opened the door for regions to falsify , manipulate and delay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virus .
Figures published by Russia ’ s statistics agency Rosstat last week show Russia recorded more than three times as many excess fatalities in May and June than the daily Covid-19 death counts published by Russia ’ s pandemic task force and used by politicians and media outlets to assess the spread of the virus .
Across many of Russia ’ s 85 regions , the discrepancy is even wider .
Dozens reported their most deadly May and June — the most recent months for which detailed fatality data is available — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unexplained excess fatalities .
The new information raises fresh questions about how seriously swathes of the country have been affected by the pandemic , and the impact insufficient data could have had on Russia ’ s response .
Russia ’ s coronavirus statistics have come under scrutiny since the beginning of the outbreak , when officials heralded a robust testing regime as the reason for the country ’ s curiously low death rate .
Like other countries , Russia publishes a daily tally of new infections and deaths from the virus .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ both a national and regional count are published every morning .
“ In many regions , the statistics have nothing to do with reality at all , ” said Tatiana Mikhailova , a statistician who has been tracking the virus outbreak since the beginning and regularly raises concerns about data .
As the only official source of real-time information on the virus , the daily numbers are nevertheless widely reported on and carry serious weight in assessing the spread of the virus , managing the response and comparing Russia to other countries .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the quality is so poor , “ it makes no sense to draw medical , virological , or epidemiological conclusions from them.
” As of Aug. 11 , those figures said Russia had recorded 897,599 infections and 15,131 fatalities — placing Russia fourth and eleventh in the global league tables .
New more detailed information on deaths being published by regional registry offices — with a significant delay — is now starting to show just how wrong Russia ’ s original fatality count is .
The data shows that Russia saw 26,360 excess @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the average death tally over the previous five years , while Russia ’ s coronavirus task force reported just 9,303 fatalities from Covid-19 over the same period .
Meanwhile , dozens of regions saw an even wider discrepancy , with a sharp acceleration in deaths during May and June which was only partially — and in some cases not at all — reflected in the official Covid-19 death tally .
Some 27 of Russia ’ s 85 regions reported their most deadly June in a decade , while May also set a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
That jump looks even starker against a backdrop of declining mortality rates in recent years .
Not a single region set a 10-year high for fatalities in January , February or March this year , and Russia as a whole saw the lowest number of deaths in a decade over that period .
While many countries have seen jumps in fatalities that exceed their official coronavirus death tolls , experts say there are a number of specific Russia factors at play .
“ Essentially all Russian regions are doing their best to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” said Mikhail Tamm , a statistician at the Higher School of Economics ( HSE ) .
“ The most innocent way of doing this is to distinguish deaths ‘ from coronavirus ’ and ‘ with coronavirus ’ — where the main cause of death is recorded as some other chronic illness — and then report only the ‘ from coronavirus ’ number as a headline figure.
” Tamm is referring to the four-tier classification guidelines the Russian health system uses to determine precisely how deaths are related to the coronavirus .
Under @ @ @ @ @ @ @ main cause of death as : • None Not Covid-19 , but the virus was confirmed in the patient and had a significant impact in triggering “ fatal complications ” from another disease • None Not Covid-19 , the virus was confirmed in the patient but it did not have a significant impact on their death In a policy which runs counter to World Health Organization guidelines — which says all deaths related to Covid-19 should be counted as such “ unless there is a clear alternative cause of death that can not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
trauma ) ” — Russian authorities only count deaths assigned to the first two categories as specifically resulting from the coronavirus .
The guidelines have allowed the regions to lower their coronavirus death counts .
“ Moscow gave the regions the opportunity to underreport because all these instructions on how to calculate deaths give a lot of freedom to the regional healthcare systems to underreport the real scale of the epidemic , ” said Nikolay Petrov , a senior research fellow at Chatham House and expert on Russia ’ s regional political @ @ @ @ @ @ @ determined as the main cause of death in 59 % of Russia ’ s coronavirus-related deaths in April , May and June .
And in more than a quarter of cases , local registry offices said the virus “ but did not affect the onset of death in any way.
” Counting all Russia ’ s coronavirus-related deaths , including those where it was deemed not to be the main cause , shows the total is almost a match for the excess fatality data — suggesting the decade-high jump in deaths could be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Russia counted fatalities differently .
But even looking at the narrowest interpretation of a coronavirus death in the new statistics , where the virus was the main cause and its presence was confirmed through testing , Russia ’ s task force still undercounted fatalities by a third during April , May and June — the only three months for which such data is available .
The broader interpretation of coronavirus-related deaths would have sent Russia ’ s overall mortality rate at the end of June up from the 1.4 % reported by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ again , in many regions , the discrepancy is significantly starker , and further complicates understanding the regional aspects of Russia ’ s coronavirus spread , which was already showing major discrepancies .
Even the official mortality rates at the end of June ranged from 0.1 % to 4.8 % in Russia ’ s regions .
But it is now clear that more than 20 were claiming Covid-19 was not the main cause of death in at least half their registered fatalities .
Still , there are plenty of areas across Russia that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for under any of the counting methodologies — raising questions about entire outbreaks that could have been hidden , undetected or misattributed .
Naberezhnye Chelny , a city of 500,000 on the banks of the Kama River , in Tatarstan , is one example .
In May , anecdotal reports began to emerge in local media of a wave of infections and city hospitals filling up .
While the number of official cases in Tatarstan began to creep up , the virus ’ penetration was still officially one of the lowest in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Tatarstan ranked 72nd of 85 in the number of cases and the republic of almost four million reported just nine coronavirus deaths during the entire month .
As the situation in the city deteriorated , some tried to sound the alarm .
Galimzyan Zaripov , a former head doctor at the city ’ s HIV/AIDS center and representative to the World Congress of Tatars , wrote an open letter highlighting the “ dangerous situation.
” He said there were almost 400 people being treated in hospital for pneumonia and other illnesses that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officially confirmed only a handful as Covid-19 .
`` We know that the number of cases is thousands , and it is growing every day … official statistics do not show this , but hide it , ” Zaripov wrote .
In the case of Naberezhnye Chelny , a string of data published after Russia ’ s June 24 vote on constitutional change has seemingly vindicated Zaripov .
Many commentators said the Kremlin played down bad news about the virus before the referendum to create a positive mood that would lead to a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deaths in May 2020 than in any previous month since 2014 — the earliest The Moscow Times was able to obtain city-level data for .
In June , that record was broken again , with deaths climbing to 56 % above average .
And July saw a new record death count as fatalities came in 60 % above normal — a sharper jump than seen in Moscow and St. Petersburg at the peak of their outbreaks .
Moreover , subsequent antibody testing has also provided evidence of a massive underreported outbreak in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ test was coming back negative , but by mid-July , they were found to be present in half of those tested , according to private sector data analyst Alexander Dragan .
Tatarstan as a whole is one of the biggest outliers in Russia ’ s coronavirus statistics and has become the go-to example among statisticians of possible under counting on a drastic scale .
Deaths in June came in 800 above the average level — the highest single toll in any month , not just any June , since a spate of devastating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ country in 2010 .
Even under the most generous official accounting standards , only 2.6 % of those were officially related to the coronavirus , and Tatarstan has reported the lowest per capita deaths from the virus than any except neighboring Bashkiria , and Russia ’ s two regions still to register an official fatality .
Political analysts and statisticians told The Moscow Times underreporting of the pandemic on a regional level is a given considering the political architecture binding Moscow and the regions .
“ By default , regions do not report @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said Petrov .
“ Neither a governor nor the president are eager to get bad news , and so their subordinates try not to come to their bosses with bad news.
” That ’ s partly because the Kremlin judges Russia ’ s regional governors — a large number of which are parachuted-in from outside the region — on their bureaucratic performance , he added .
“ The system doesn ’ t require them to be the best , it requires them to not be very different from the others , to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ every order coming from the center , and to be seen to avoid public scandals.
” Coming to Moscow to ask for help in a time of crisis is “ considered a vulnerability and weakness , ” said political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya .
In the context of the coronavirus , the Kremlin demands governors perform a tricky balancing act — keeping cases low , hospitals within capacity , social unrest down and economic fallout minimal , she added .
“ If a governor has problems , if they have to close businesses or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ won ’ t be happy.
” Delays in certain statistics coming to light also play a role in Russia ’ s underreporting .
Since the daily toll is the most important number , it matters less what the more detailed information on possible coronavirus deaths and overall all-causes fatality data , which is published around five weeks later , shows .
And even then there is deniability , said Petrov .
“ First , there is no direct evidence that this additional mortality is totally caused by the epidemic .
Second , when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it doesn ’ t play the political role it would if it came earlier .
That ’ s why they are not afraid of the discrepancies.
” Such real-time underreporting could be hampering the ability of regions to respond to the crisis , however .
“ It wasn ’ t very rational to cheat in some cases , because federal assistance depended on the scale of the problem , ” Petrov adds .
In meetings with prime minister Mikhail Mishustin , governors were more likely to request extra help than in their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mishustin ’ s response was : ‘ look at what your subordinates reported about the scale of the epidemic .
They reported very low figures , that ’ s why you didn ’ t get as much money.
’ ” These flaws in the ability to track Russia ’ s pandemic in something closer to real-time have led to a gaggle of data scientists and mathematicians turning to internet search trends to build a better understanding of the regional pattern of the epidemic , spot hidden outbreaks and predict future flare-ups .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the epidemic when it is hidden behind the fog of war , and the official numbers do not reflect reality , ” Dragan , wrote in a summary of his methodology and findings into what can be gleaned from looking at Yandex searches in different cities and regions .
By stripping out generic searches , such as “ what are coronavirus symptoms ?
” , and focusing on ultra-specific questions , such as “ temperature of 37.5 degrees celsius , ” “ loss of smell ” or “ infectious diseases hospital , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ place can reveal the prevalence of the virus .
“ All the cities where there has been a high outbreak according to official statistics are also shown in search statistics , ” said Boris Ovchinnikov , another data scientist .
Moscow , St. Petersburg , Yekaterinburg and Dagestan , for instance , all saw spikes in search trends at different times that corresponded with their own outbreaks .
The technique can also be used to spot outbreaks otherwise hidden from official statistics .
Naberezhnye Chelny , for instance , saw a spike in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ probable spike in cases .
“ Every place we saw a peak in search queries ... we can see growth in the total death statistics for that specific region , ” Ovchinnikov added , even if an outbreak does not show up in the official daily coronavirus numbers .
Analysts fear that once excess fatality beyond June is published , it could show thousands more fatalities unexplained by the country ’ s official coronavirus death toll .
Many “ regions will show higher death rates in July than in June .
And I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well those statistics could be pretty bad , ” Ovchinnikov said .
The time lag in publishing the numbers , and the lag between a coronavirus infection being confirmed and a patient either fully recovering or succumbing to the disease means there is no data beyond the discredited daily tallies for a significant portion of Russia ’ s pandemic deaths .
More than a third of Russia ’ s regions saw their infection rate peak after June 15 — the two-week cut-off date where a resulting death likely occurred in a month data @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of information — the tiny number of regions or cities who have independently published data on deaths in July — have raised concerns .
Naberezhnye Chelny , for instance , is seen as a bellwether .
It was one of the first cities in the area to see a spike in search queries for the infection — suggesting its outbreak was among the earliest — and deaths in July were even higher than in June .
The Perm region reported more fatalities in July than in any month since January 2015 .
Tyumen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just eight official coronavirus deaths .
In other areas , the pandemic could still be accelerating .
Ovchinnikov highlights a 1,000-kilometer band across Russia ’ s south , stretching from annexed Crimea to Volgograd as having displayed big increases in Yandex searches for coronavirus-related symptoms in recent weeks .
Meanwhile , other regions have taken extra steps to further delay potentially bad news .
The Sverdlovsk region , where Yekaterinburg is located , usually publishes its all-causes fatality data shortly after the end of the month .
But last week authorities told a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ putting out the July information , was switching to a quarterly publishing schedule and promptly deleted all the previous monthly data for 2020 from its website .
It had already seen its worst death count in June for a decade , and its official daily reporting showed a three-fold increase in deaths in July .
As the pandemic wears on , and Russia continues to report more than 5,000 new infections a day , Petrov said he believes competition between the regions and a culture of underreporting will continue .
“ Everybody is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” he said .
“ And if you started lying , then it ’ s very complicated for you to change your behavior , otherwise you have to explain why there is such a huge difference in numbers .
“ The general trend is to underreport .
The system works like that by default .
”

The death toll from the coronavirus across many Russian regions could be many times higher than official statistics show, analysis of new data by The Moscow Times suggests. Experts pointed to systemic underreporting of deaths, and highlighted a complex incentive structure and political relationship between the Kremlin and Russia’s governors in the regions. They believe that by discouraging regions from reporting bad news, insisting they keep the virus under control and providing loose guidelines on how to count deaths, Russia has opened the door for regions to falsify, manipulate and delay accurate reporting of the spread of the virus. Figures published by Russia’s statistics agency Rosstat last week show Russia recorded more than three times as many excess fatalities in May and June than the daily Covid-19 death counts published by Russia’s pandemic task force and used by politicians and media outlets to assess the spread of the virus. Across many of Russia’s 85 regions, the discrepancy is even wider. Dozens reported their most deadly May and June — the most recent months for which detailed fatality data is available — in a decade, registering hundreds of unexplained excess fatalities. The new information raises fresh questions about how seriously swathes of the country have been affected by the pandemic, and the impact insufficient data could have had on Russia’s response. Counting fatalities Russia’s coronavirus statistics have come under scrutiny since the beginning of the outbreak, when officials heralded a robust testing regime as the reason for the country’s curiously low death rate. Like other countries, Russia publishes a daily tally of new infections and deaths from the virus. The numbers are compiled by local authorities and both a national and regional count are published every morning. “In many regions, the statistics have nothing to do with reality at all,” said Tatiana Mikhailova, a statistician who has been tracking the virus outbreak since the beginning and regularly raises concerns about data. As the only official source of real-time information on the virus, the daily numbers are nevertheless widely reported on and carry serious weight in assessing the spread of the virus, managing the response and comparing Russia to other countries. But Mikhailova told The Moscow Times that the quality is so poor, “it makes no sense to draw medical, virological, or epidemiological conclusions from them.” As of Aug. 11, those figures said Russia had recorded 897,599 infections and 15,131 fatalities — placing Russia fourth and eleventh in the global league tables. New more detailed information on deaths being published by regional registry offices — with a significant delay — is now starting to show just how wrong Russia’s original fatality count is.
The data shows that Russia saw 26,360 excess fatalities in May and June, compared with the average death tally over the previous five years, while Russia’s coronavirus task force reported just 9,303 fatalities from Covid-19 over the same period. Meanwhile, dozens of regions saw an even wider discrepancy, with a sharp acceleration in deaths during May and June which was only partially — and in some cases not at all — reflected in the official Covid-19 death tally. Some 27 of Russia’s 85 regions reported their most deadly June in a decade, while May also set a 10-year high for deaths in 20 regions. That jump looks even starker against a backdrop of declining mortality rates in recent years. Not a single region set a 10-year high for fatalities in January, February or March this year, and Russia as a whole saw the lowest number of deaths in a decade over that period.
While many countries have seen jumps in fatalities that exceed their official coronavirus death tolls, experts say there are a number of specific Russia factors at play. “Essentially all Russian regions are doing their best to artificially suppress the headline death count,” said Mikhail Tamm, a statistician at the Higher School of Economics (HSE). “The most innocent way of doing this is to distinguish deaths ‘from coronavirus’ and ‘with coronavirus’ — where the main cause of death is recorded as some other chronic illness — and then report only the ‘from coronavirus’ number as a headline figure.” Tamm is referring to the four-tier classification guidelines the Russian health system uses to determine precisely how deaths are related to the coronavirus. Under these, local authorities can give the main cause of death as: Covid-19, confirmed by testing
Suspected Covid-19, not confirmed by testing
Not Covid-19, but the virus was confirmed in the patient and had a significant impact in triggering “fatal complications” from another disease
Not Covid-19, the virus was confirmed in the patient but it did not have a significant impact on their death In a policy which runs counter to World Health Organization guidelines — which says all deaths related to Covid-19 should be counted as such “unless there is a clear alternative cause of death that cannot be related to Covid-19 disease (e.g. trauma)” — Russian authorities only count deaths assigned to the first two categories as specifically resulting from the coronavirus. The guidelines have allowed the regions to lower their coronavirus death counts. “Moscow gave the regions the opportunity to underreport because all these instructions on how to calculate deaths give a lot of freedom to the regional healthcare systems to underreport the real scale of the epidemic,” said Nikolay Petrov, a senior research fellow at Chatham House and expert on Russia’s regional political system. Overall, the virus was determined as the main cause of death in 59% of Russia’s coronavirus-related deaths in April, May and June. And in more than a quarter of cases, local registry offices said the virus was present “but did not affect the onset of death in any way.” Counting all Russia’s coronavirus-related deaths, including those where it was deemed not to be the main cause, shows the total is almost a match for the excess fatality data — suggesting the decade-high jump in deaths could be entirely accounted for by the coronavirus if Russia counted fatalities differently.
But even looking at the narrowest interpretation of a coronavirus death in the new statistics, where the virus was the main cause and its presence was confirmed through testing, Russia’s task force still undercounted fatalities by a third during April, May and June — the only three months for which such data is available. The broader interpretation of coronavirus-related deaths would have sent Russia’s overall mortality rate at the end of June up from the 1.4% reported by the task force to 4.2%. Once again, in many regions, the discrepancy is significantly starker, and further complicates understanding the regional aspects of Russia’s coronavirus spread, which was already showing major discrepancies. Even the official mortality rates at the end of June ranged from 0.1% to 4.8% in Russia’s regions. But it is now clear that more than 20 were claiming Covid-19 was not the main cause of death in at least half their registered fatalities.
The Bryansk region, for instance, located on Russia’s border with Belarus and Ukraine, had reported 37 deaths where the coronavirus was the main cause by the end of June. It found another 270 where the virus was present, but was not the main factor — more than seven times as many. That accounting has helped Bryansk report a mortality rate of just 0.6%, when including all coronavirus-related deaths would have sent that to almost 5%. In fact, including all deaths would have more than tripled the headline mortality rates in 19 of the worst-affected regions.
Hidden outbreaks Still, there are plenty of areas across Russia that reported record-breaking fatalities in June not accounted for under any of the counting methodologies — raising questions about entire outbreaks that could have been hidden, undetected or misattributed. Naberezhnye Chelny, a city of 500,000 on the banks of the Kama River, in Tatarstan, is one example. In May, anecdotal reports began to emerge in local media of a wave of infections and city hospitals filling up. While the number of official cases in Tatarstan began to creep up, the virus’ penetration was still officially one of the lowest in the country. On a per capita basis, Tatarstan ranked 72nd of 85 in the number of cases and the republic of almost four million reported just nine coronavirus deaths during the entire month. As the situation in the city deteriorated, some tried to sound the alarm. Galimzyan Zaripov, a former head doctor at the city’s HIV/AIDS center and representative to the World Congress of Tatars, wrote an open letter highlighting the “dangerous situation.” He said there were almost 400 people being treated in hospital for pneumonia and other illnesses that resembled the coronavirus, but the city officially confirmed only a handful as Covid-19. "We know that the number of cases is thousands, and it is growing every day … official statistics do not show this, but hide it,” Zaripov wrote. In the case of Naberezhnye Chelny, a string of data published after Russia’s June 24 vote on constitutional change has seemingly vindicated Zaripov. Many commentators said the Kremlin played down bad news about the virus before the referendum to create a positive mood that would lead to a yes vote. The city saw more deaths in May 2020 than in any previous month since 2014 — the earliest The Moscow Times was able to obtain city-level data for.
In June, that record was broken again, with deaths climbing to 56% above average. And July saw a new record death count as fatalities came in 60% above normal — a sharper jump than seen in Moscow and St. Petersburg at the peak of their outbreaks. Moreover, subsequent antibody testing has also provided evidence of a massive underreported outbreak in the city. In mid-May nearly every antibody test was coming back negative, but by mid-July, they were found to be present in half of those tested, according to private sector data analyst Alexander Dragan. Tatarstan as a whole is one of the biggest outliers in Russia’s coronavirus statistics and has become the go-to example among statisticians of possible under counting on a drastic scale.
Deaths in June came in 800 above the average level — the highest single toll in any month, not just any June, since a spate of devastating wildfires killed tens of thousands across the country in 2010. Even under the most generous official accounting standards, only 2.6% of those were officially related to the coronavirus, and Tatarstan has reported the lowest per capita deaths from the virus than any except neighboring Bashkiria, and Russia’s two regions still to register an official fatality. Broken incentives Political analysts and statisticians told The Moscow Times underreporting of the pandemic on a regional level is a given considering the political architecture binding Moscow and the regions. “By default, regions do not report honestly to the federal center,” said Petrov. “Neither a governor nor the president are eager to get bad news, and so their subordinates try not to come to their bosses with bad news.” That’s partly because the Kremlin judges Russia’s regional governors — a large number of which are parachuted-in from outside the region — on their bureaucratic performance, he added. “The system doesn’t require them to be the best, it requires them to not be very different from the others, to be very fast in reacting to each and every order coming from the center, and to be seen to avoid public scandals.” Coming to Moscow to ask for help in a time of crisis is “considered a vulnerability and weakness,” said political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya. In the context of the coronavirus, the Kremlin demands governors perform a tricky balancing act — keeping cases low, hospitals within capacity, social unrest down and economic fallout minimal, she added. “If a governor has problems, if they have to close businesses or fail to manage somehow, the Kremlin won’t be happy.” Delays in certain statistics coming to light also play a role in Russia’s underreporting. Since the daily toll is the most important number, it matters less what the more detailed information on possible coronavirus deaths and overall all-causes fatality data, which is published around five weeks later, shows. And even then there is deniability, said Petrov. “First, there is no direct evidence that this additional mortality is totally caused by the epidemic. Second, when it comes to the surface months later, it doesn’t play the political role it would if it came earlier. That’s why they are not afraid of the discrepancies.” Such real-time underreporting could be hampering the ability of regions to respond to the crisis, however. “It wasn’t very rational to cheat in some cases, because federal assistance depended on the scale of the problem,” Petrov adds. In meetings with prime minister Mikhail Mishustin, governors were more likely to request extra help than in their phone conferences with Putin, “and Mishustin’s response was: ‘look at what your subordinates reported about the scale of the epidemic. They reported very low figures, that’s why you didn’t get as much money.’” Real-time understanding These flaws in the ability to track Russia’s pandemic in something closer to real-time have led to a gaggle of data scientists and mathematicians turning to internet search trends to build a better understanding of the regional pattern of the epidemic, spot hidden outbreaks and predict future flare-ups. “Search queries are one way to see the epidemic when it is hidden behind the fog of war, and the official numbers do not reflect reality,” Dragan, wrote in a summary of his methodology and findings into what can be gleaned from looking at Yandex searches in different cities and regions. By stripping out generic searches, such as “what are coronavirus symptoms?”, and focusing on ultra-specific questions, such as “temperature of 37.5 degrees celsius,” “loss of smell” or “infectious diseases hospital,” changes in search volume in a specific place can reveal the prevalence of the virus. “All the cities where there has been a high outbreak according to official statistics are also shown in search statistics,” said Boris Ovchinnikov, another data scientist. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Dagestan, for instance, all saw spikes in search trends at different times that corresponded with their own outbreaks. The technique can also be used to spot outbreaks otherwise hidden from official statistics. Naberezhnye Chelny, for instance, saw a spike in search traffic around the time of its probable spike in cases. “Every place we saw a peak in search queries ... we can see growth in the total death statistics for that specific region,” Ovchinnikov added, even if an outbreak does not show up in the official daily coronavirus numbers. Expecting the worst Analysts fear that once excess fatality beyond June is published, it could show thousands more fatalities unexplained by the country’s official coronavirus death toll. Many “regions will show higher death rates in July than in June. And I’m afraid that in August as well those statistics could be pretty bad,” Ovchinnikov said. The time lag in publishing the numbers, and the lag between a coronavirus infection being confirmed and a patient either fully recovering or succumbing to the disease means there is no data beyond the discredited daily tallies for a significant portion of Russia’s pandemic deaths. More than a third of Russia’s regions saw their infection rate peak after June 15 — the two-week cut-off date where a resulting death likely occurred in a month data has been published for. The snapshots of information — the tiny number of regions or cities who have independently published data on deaths in July — have raised concerns. Naberezhnye Chelny, for instance, is seen as a bellwether. It was one of the first cities in the area to see a spike in search queries for the infection — suggesting its outbreak was among the earliest — and deaths in July were even higher than in June.


themoscowtimes--2020-08-11--Vote Challenger Makes 'Difficult Decision' to Leave Belarus

The main challenger in Belarus 's disputed presidential election said Tuesday she made a `` difficult decision '' to leave the country , after a second night of street clashes between police and opposition supporters left a protester dead .
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya , who has claimed victory over authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in Sunday 's vote , said she had left out of concern for her children , with Lithuania saying she was `` safe '' in the neighboring country .
`` I have made a very difficult decision , '' a distressed-looking Tikhanovskaya said in a short video address @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thing we have in life , '' said the 37-year-old , whose five-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son had earlier been taken out of the country for their safety .
`` I know that many will understand me , many will judge me , and many will begin to hate me , '' Tikhanovskaya said .
`` But God forbid anyone face the choice I had . ''
The political novice , who has energized Belarus 's embattled opposition , had gone incommunicado Monday night .
On Tuesday , Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius @ @ @ @ @ @ @ EU member country and `` is safe . ''
EU and NATO member Lithuania , which like Belarus was once part of the Soviet Union , has a history of granting refuge to Belarusian and Russian opposition figures .
Her surfacing in Lithuania came after thousands took to the streets of the capital Minsk for a second night on Monday , after authorities said longtime ruler Lukashenko had secured a sixth term with 80 % of the vote .
Tikhanovskaya , a political neophyte , came second with 10 % and protesters are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election .
Later on Tuesday , state media released a video showing Tikhanovskaya urging supporters not to protest , but her allies said it was recorded under pressure .
She appeared to read from a prepared statement calling for `` respect for the law '' and for Belarusians not to take to the streets .
'We will not stop ' For the second night in a row , police used rubber bullets , stun grenades and tear gas to disperse demonstrations , though protesters fought back with stones and fireworks and built makeshift @ @ @ @ @ @ @ witnesses said .
The chaotic scenes of defiance that saw protesters angrily push back against police in full riot gear were highly unusual in the authoritarian country , where many say Lukashenko 's time is up .
`` Our goal is to overthrow the Lukashenko regime , '' Yakov , a 51-year-old engineer , told AFP in Minsk .
He said neither the departure of Tikhanovskaya nor deadly risks would stop protesters .
`` That Tikhanovskaya has left for Lithuania is even better , she is safe there . ''
Yan , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will not stop despite police brutality .
We are fighting for our right to live in a free country . ''
Lukashenko 's opponents have called for running protests against his regime and there were also calls for strikes .
Dozens of people have been injured in the violence and the first fatality was confirmed on Monday when police said a man died after an explosive device went off in his hand .
Young protesters were seen covered in blood , lying immobile on the ground or being dragged away by police .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's staff , said she believed the candidate had left the country against her will after meeting with officials on Monday at the Central Election Commission .
`` The Belarusian authorities took Svetlana to Lithuania .
She had no choice , '' Kovalkova said .
`` Before entering the Central Election Commission , she had no plans to leave the country .
It was not her decision . ''
Tikhanovskaya decided to run for president after the authorities jailed her husband , popular blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky , and barred him from contesting .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a historic challenge to former collective farm director Lukashenko , who has ruled Belarus since 1994 , brooking no dissent and earning the nickname of `` Europe 's last dictator . ''
Western governments have condemned the police crackdown , with some in the European Union suggesting it may reimpose sanctions on Lukashenko 's regime that were lifted several years ago .
The White House said it was `` deeply concerned '' by the violence .
European governments also questioned the results , with Germany voicing `` strong doubts '' about the conduct @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Poland calling for an emergency EU summit .
Lukashenko was defiant on Monday , vowing he would not allow Belarus to be `` torn apart '' and suggesting protesters were foreign pawns .
`` We recorded calls from abroad .
There were calls from Poland , Britain and the Czech Republic , they were directing our — forgive me — sheep , '' Lukashenko said .

The main challenger in Belarus's disputed presidential election said Tuesday she had left the country after two nights of clashes between police and opposition supporters left a protester dead. The European Union condemned the polls as "neither free nor fair" and threatened to impose sanctions on those responsible for "violence, unjustified arrests, and falsification of election results." Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who claimed victory over authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in Sunday's vote, said she had left the country out of concern for her children. The political novice who has energized Belarus's opposition crossed the border in the early hours and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told AFP she was "safe" in the EU member country. "I have made a very difficult decision," a distressed-looking Tikhanovskaya said in a video statement. "Children are the most important thing we have in life," said the 37-year-old, whose five-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son had earlier been taken out of the country for their safety.
Tikhanovskaya posts a video to YouTube where she says she left Belarus for the sake of her children.
God forbid any of you are forced with the choice that I was,” she said. “Not one life is worth what is happening right now. Children are the most important thing in our lives.” pic.twitter.com/oN7maF3AW8 — max seddon (@maxseddon) August 11, 2020
Tikhanovskaya decided to run for president after the authorities jailed her husband, popular blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, and barred him from contesting the election. He remains in prison in Belarus. "I know that many will understand me, many will judge me, and many will begin to hate me," Tikhanovskaya said. "But God forbid anyone face the choice I had." Belarusian state media released a second video where Tikhanovskaya urged supporters not to protest, apparently reading from a script. Maria Kolesnikova, one of Tikhanovskaya's campaign partners, said "we think this video was recorded under pressure from law enforcement authorities."
Situation gets weirder: In video apparently recorded before she left Belarus, reading from script, Tikhanovskaya calls on Belarusians to accept Lukashenko’s “victory” and stop protesting. We know she was held incommunicado at election commission yday. Seems this happened there. pic.twitter.com/eWb93Vcxap — Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) August 11, 2020
Belarus on Monday declared long-serving leader Lukashenko had secured a sixth term with 80% of the vote, prompting a second night of protests and mass detentions by riot police. Tikhanovskaya came second with 10% according to the official count but protesters are backing her claim to have won the election. Her second campaign partner, Veronika Tsepkalo, on Tuesday released a video statement urging the international community to "recognize Svetlana as the only lawfully elected president." On Tuesday evening, riot police patrolled Minsk and began detaining pedestrians and cyclists in the area that saw clashes the previous night. Broadband and mobile internet were cut off, a reporter in Minsk said, while residents have had difficulties connecting to opposition-linked websites and social media since Sunday.


themoscowtimes--2020-08-11--WHO Wants to Review Russian Vaccine Safety Data

President Vladimir Putin said Russia had become the first country to approve a vaccine offering `` sustainable immunity '' against the new coronavirus .
The World Health Organization said any WHO stamp of approval on a Covid-19 vaccine candidate would require a rigorous safety data review , after Russia announced Tuesday it had approved a vaccine .
`` We are in close contact with the Russian health authorities and discussions are ongoing with respect to possible WHO pre-qualification of the vaccine , '' the United Nations health agency 's spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva at an online press @ @ @ @ @ @ @ includes the rigorous review and assessment of all the required safety and efficacy data . ''
Russia 's Sputnik V vaccine has been developed by the Gamaleya research institute in coordination with the country 's Defense Ministry .
A total of 165 candidate vaccines are being worked on around the world , according to the latest WHO overview produced on July 31 .
Of those , 139 are still in pre-clinical evaluation , while the other 26 are in the various phases of being tested on humans , of which six are the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of clinical evaluation .
The Gamaleya candidate being produced in Russia , which is among the 26 being tested on humans , is listed as being in Phase 1 .
Kirill Dmitriev , the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund which finances the vaccine project , said Phase 3 trials would start on Wednesday , industrial production was expected from September and that 20 countries had pre-ordered more than a billion doses .
`` Every country has national regulatory agencies that approve the use of vaccines or medicines on its territory , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in place a process of pre-qualification for vaccines but also for medicines .
Manufacturers ask to have the WHO pre-qualification because it is a sort of stamp of quality .
`` To get this , there is a review and assessment of all required safety and efficacy data that are gathered through the clinical trials .
WHO will do this for any candidate vaccine . ''
The pandemic has seen an unprecedented mobilization of funding and research to rush through a vaccine that can protect billions of people worldwide .
`` We are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ candidate vaccines have been developing and as we have been always saying , we hope some of these vaccines will prove to be safe and efficient , '' said Jasarevic .
`` Accelerating progress does not mean compromising on safety , '' he said .

President Vladimir Putin said Russia had become the first country to approve a vaccine offering "sustainable immunity" against the new coronavirus.
The World Health Organization said any WHO stamp of approval on a Covid-19 vaccine candidate would require a rigorous safety data review, after Russia announced Tuesday it had approved a vaccine.
"We are in close contact with the Russian health authorities and discussions are ongoing with respect to possible WHO pre-qualification of the vaccine," the United Nations health agency's spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva at an online press briefing.
"Pre-qualification of any vaccine includes the rigorous review and assessment of all the required safety and efficacy data."
Russia's Sputnik V vaccine has been developed by the Gamaleya research institute in coordination with the country's Defense Ministry.
A total of 165 candidate vaccines are being worked on around the world, according to the latest WHO overview produced on July 31.
Of those, 139 are still in pre-clinical evaluation, while the other 26 are in the various phases of being tested on humans, of which six are the furthest ahead, having reached Phase 3 of clinical evaluation.
The Gamaleya candidate being produced in Russia, which is among the 26 being tested on humans, is listed as being in Phase 1.
Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund which finances the vaccine project, said Phase 3 trials would start on Wednesday, industrial production was expected from September and that 20 countries had pre-ordered more than a billion doses.
'Stamp of quality'
"Every country has national regulatory agencies that approve the use of vaccines or medicines on its territory," Jasarevic explained.
"WHO has in place a process of pre-qualification for vaccines but also for medicines. Manufacturers ask to have the WHO pre-qualification because it is a sort of stamp of quality.
"To get this, there is a review and assessment of all required safety and efficacy data that are gathered through the clinical trials. WHO will do this for any candidate vaccine."
The pandemic has seen an unprecedented mobilization of funding and research to rush through a vaccine that can protect billions of people worldwide.
"We are encouraged by the speed by which several candidate vaccines have been developing and as we have been always saying, we hope some of these vaccines will prove to be safe and efficient," said Jasarevic.
"Accelerating progress does not mean compromising on safety," he said.


themoscowtimes--2020-08-11--Belarus Vote Results ‘Falsified,’ Lukashenko ‘Deranged’ — Russian Lawmaker

Belarusian election officials announced that Lukashenko won more than 80 % of the vote Sunday , a result that triggered ongoing nationwide protests , strikes and clashes with law enforcement officers .
His main challenger also claimed victory and called on him to resign but was later pressured into leaving the country .
Official election results in Belarus showing an overwhelming victory for its longtime ruler were likely falsified , a senior Russian lawmaker has said in a rare stinging rebuke from Alexander Lukashenko ’ s traditional ally Moscow .
“ The results that were announced don ’ t inspire @ @ @ @ @ @ @ member of Russia ’ s lower house of parliament , the State Duma , told the pro-Kremlin Gazeta.ru news outlet Monday .
Zatulin , who is the deputy head of the Duma ’ s committee on post-Soviet affairs , said the presidential election in Belarus “ was accompanied by total falsification and disinformation.
” “ Saying how many votes Lukashenko won in these circumstances is like reading tea leaves , ” he told Gazeta.ru .
Meanwhile , other Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin and State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin have congratulated Lukashenko @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Zatulin ’ s colleague who heads the Duma ’ s post-Soviet affairs committee , Leonid Kalashnikov , urged Lukashenko to crack down “ hard ” on demonstrators to avoid an overthrow similar to that of Ukraine in 2014 .
Zatulin , however , said “ it ’ s unlikely that global public opinion will be on Lukashenko ’ s side ” and criticized the Russian-led election observation mission for declaring the Belarusian election legitimate .
“ The results of these elections show Lukashenko as a man who imposes himself on Belarus without any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Lukashenko has exceeded all limits .
We don ’ t wish for any discord or ‘ Maidan ’ for Belarus , but he ’ s insane .
The problem is that the head of Belarus is a deranged person when it comes to power , ” he said .
The Russian lawmaker ’ s candid remarks appear to contradict the Kremlin ’ s wait-and-see approach to the unrest in Belarus .
Several pro-Kremlin newspapers ran columns in support of anti-Lukashenko protesters , while Russian state-run television largely ignored or played down the @ @

Belarusian election officials announced that Lukashenko won more than 80% of the vote Sunday, a result that triggered ongoing nationwide protests, strikes and clashes with law enforcement officers. His main challenger also claimed victory and called on him to resign but was later pressured into leaving the country.
Official election results in Belarus showing an overwhelming victory for its longtime ruler were likely falsified, a senior Russian lawmaker has said in a rare stinging rebuke from Alexander Lukashenko’s traditional ally Moscow.
“The results that were announced don’t inspire confidence,” Konstantin Zatulin, a member of Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, told the pro-Kremlin Gazeta.ru news outlet Monday.
Zatulin, who is the deputy head of the Duma’s committee on post-Soviet affairs, said the presidential election in Belarus “was accompanied by total falsification and disinformation.”
“Saying how many votes Lukashenko won in these circumstances is like reading tea leaves,” he told Gazeta.ru.
Meanwhile, other Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin and State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin have congratulated Lukashenko on winning his sixth presidential term. Zatulin’s colleague who heads the Duma’s post-Soviet affairs committee, Leonid Kalashnikov, urged Lukashenko to crack down “hard” on demonstrators to avoid an overthrow similar to that of Ukraine in 2014.
Zatulin, however, said “it’s unlikely that global public opinion will be on Lukashenko’s side” and criticized the Russian-led election observation mission for declaring the Belarusian election legitimate.
“The results of these elections show Lukashenko as a man who imposes himself on Belarus without any ideas,” Zatulin told Gazeta.ru.
“Lukashenko has exceeded all limits. We don’t wish for any discord or ‘Maidan’ for Belarus, but he’s insane. The problem is that the head of Belarus is a deranged person when it comes to power,” he said.
The Russian lawmaker’s candid remarks appear to contradict the Kremlin’s wait-and-see approach to the unrest in Belarus.
Several pro-Kremlin newspapers ran columns in support of anti-Lukashenko protesters, while Russian state-run television largely ignored or played down the demonstrations.