COVID-19 in Russia: should we expect a novel response to the novel coronavirus?
Open accessAbstract
Russia provides an important case study in its COVID-19 response by a country that has one of the largest epidemics, increasingly authoritarian government policies, and important domestic and international political influence. In this article, we describe and explain Russia's public health and social policy responses to COVID-19 - earlier in the pandemic when the concern was the border with China, to later when there were confirmed cases in all regions in the country. In the past, Russia has served as an interesting case for exploring global health politics and infectious diseases. Thus, we position our analysis of the COVID-19 response through a reflection on infectious disease control in the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia. We explore the following: government control, contention with official statistics, (dis-)information, (mis-)trust, and vulnerabilities of medical care workers. We also discuss how Russia is reinforcing its role in global health during the pandemic, for example through vaccine development and foreign humanitarian aid. We situate our analysis in the historical, political, and social contexts to help explain Russia's response to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
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The severe COVID-19 epidemics in eastern Europe and central Asia might be related to comparatively less public intervention, such as mask mandates or stay-at-home orders.
“This might be related to comparatively less public intervention, such as mask mandates or stay-at-home orders.57, 58”
From Estimating global, regional, and national daily and cumulative infections with SARS-CoV-2 through Nov 14, 2021: a statistical analysis (2022) · cites this paper as [57]
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References 24 · Cited by 24
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- Arkhipova, A. S., Radchenko, D. A., Kozlova, I. V., Peigin, B. S., Gavrilova, M. V., & Petrov, N. V. (2020). Пути российской инфодемии: от WhatsApp до Следственного комитета [Specifics of infodemic in russia: From WhatsApp to the investigative committee]. Monitoring of Public Opinion: Economic and Social Changes, 6(160), 231-265. https://doi.org/10.14515/monitoring.2020.6.1778 · DOI
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- Dudina, V. (2015). Субъективное неравенство, социальная сплоченность и политические реформы: на примере роста продолжительности жизни в Советском Союзе в 1985-1987 гг. [Subjective inequality, social cohesion and political reforms: an example of the rise of life expectancy in Soviet Union in 1985-1987]. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo Universiteta, 12(3), 110-118.
- Parsons, M. A. (2014). Dying unseen: The cultural context of the Russian mortality crisis. Vanderbilt University Press.
- Treml, V. G. (1994). Problems with Soviet statistics: Past and present. In C. J. Wolf, & H. S. Rowen (Eds.), Defense convention, economics reforms and the outlook for the Russian and Ukrainian economies (pp. 19-37). St. Martin's Press.
- Authors
- King, E. J., & Dudina, V. I.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- St Petersburg University (RU)
- Corresponding author
- King, Elizabeth J.
- Venue
- Global Public Health
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2021-03-19
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 8-9
- Pages
- 1237-1250
- ISSN
- 1744-1692 (ISSN-L)
- 1744-1706
- OpenAlex
- W3138545153
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 3
- FWCI
- 4.57
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Global Public Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Legal, Health, Environmental and COVID-19 Challenges
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Global Security and Public Health
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Modeling and Simulation › COVID-19 epidemiological studies
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, Russia, pandemic response, public health policy, authoritarian regimes, infectious disease control, Soviet Union, official statistics, disinformation, distrust, healthcare workers, global health politics, vaccine development, humanitarian aid, Russian-Chinese border
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, Humans, Public Policy, Russia, Pandemics
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