Russia admits to world's third-worst Covid-19 death tollhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/28/russia-admits-to-world-third-worst-covid-19-death-toll-underreportedRussia said on Monday that its coronavirus death toll was more than three times higher than it had previously reported, making it the country with the third-largest number of fatalities.
For months, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has boasted about Russia’s low fatality rate from the virus, saying earlier this month that it had done a better job at managing the pandemic than western countries.
But since early in the pandemic, some Russian experts have said the government was playing down the country’s outbreak.
On Monday, Russian officials admitted that was true. The Rosstat statistics agency said that the number of deaths from all causes recorded between January and November had risen by 229,700 compared with the previous year.
I'm sure this is still low-ball propaganda. Some countries' numbers are probably low, because they simply have incomplete data. Other countries' numbers are low because of pride. Countries like Iran have both factors going on, and I would not be surprised if the same is true of Russia.
