Prognosis
Putin’s Boasts About Covid-19 Safety Are Unraveling
- Russians reject vaccines as delta variant fuels new Covid wave
- Shortfall of Sputnik supplies hampers soft-power effort abroad
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President Vladimir Putin told business leaders at his flagship economic forum this month that Russia is coping better than many other countries with Covid-19. Events increasingly are contradicting him.
Moscow on Friday reported a record-high 9,056 new Covid-19 cases, days after Mayor Sergei Sobyanin ordered mandatory vaccination for at least 2 million employees as surging infections threaten to overwhelm the capital’s hospitals. That came weeks after Putin ruled out compulsory shots, even as inoculation rates are a fraction of those in Europe and the U.S.