Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has ordered restaurants, bars, parks and most stores in Europe’s largest capital city to close temporarily from yesterday.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Friday embraced Sobyanin’s approach, saying that measures adopted by Moscow “should extend to all regions” of Russia as the number of declared COVID-19 cases in the country passed 1,000.
“We need tough restrictions,” to ensure that Russians stay at home during a planned shutdown of most workplaces next week, Mishustin said at a televised meeting with Sobyanin and other top officials charged with containing the outbreak.
“We managed to win time thanks to preventative measures,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday gave Russians a week of paid leave in his first televised speech on the COVID-19 threat, while also promising benefits to help companies and individuals through the crisis.
However, the Kremlin on Friday walked back the decision amid reports that some Russians planned to travel to the country’s vacation spots or visit relatives, taking advantage of reduced domestic airfares offered by the state airline Aeroflot.
Mishustin ordered all Russia’s parks and resorts to shut down.
“It’s not days off or holidays in the classical understanding of that word,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a hastily arranged conference call. “Those who have been working remotely will continue to work next week.”
Putin has allowed Sobyanin, a former Kremlin chief of staff who has led the city of 12.7 million since 2010, to take center stage in advocating intensifying restrictions to head off the greatest public health challenge of his 20-year rule.
“They’re playing good cop and bad cop,” said Alexei Mukhin, head of the Moscow-based Center for Political Information. “Putin is doling out goodies, while Sobyanin is in charge of taking unpopular measures.”
Authorities in Moscow are seriously considering shutting down the city, four people familiar with discussions on the subject said.
A Moscow government representative declined to comment.
Putin’s top public health official, Anna Popova, on Monday ruled out a lockdown adopted by governments in the worst-afflicted European countries of Italy and Spain, as well as in France and the UK, calling the measure unnecessary.
While Russia’s patient numbers are well below the levels in those countries, Putin made his address to the nation a day after Sobyanin warned him that the official figures understated the true scale of the outbreak and that Moscow had nearly twice as many cases in reality.
“Sobyanin has effectively become the main person responsible for dealing with the virus,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, head of R. Politik, a political consultancy. “That’s why he is pushing for the toughest possible measures.”
Moscow has closed entertainment venues and banned gatherings of more than 50 people, although the city so far remains free of the home confinement imposed in other capitals, including Paris, London, Rome and Madrid.
The subway was open, even if traffic is down by half and there were plenty of vehicles on the roads.
The WHO’s representative in Russia, Melita Vujnovic, on Thursday said that if Muscovites and others across the country exercise self-discipline and stay home, then officials might avoid imposing strict quarantine.
“If it becomes necessary, I am sure they will take this measure,” she said.
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