98. See “Doktor Myasnikov: Komu polozheno pomeret’, pomrut,” Soloviev. Live, May 20, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wztfLJLUSWc, accessed September 7, 2021.
99. For an account, see Kristina Safonova, “My vse boimsya—i rukovodstvo, i vrachi,” meduza.io, April 21, 2020, https://meduza.io/feature/2020/04/21/my-vse-boimsya-i-rukovodstvo-i-vrachi, accessed September 7, 2021.
100. See Sergei Guriev, Daniel Treisman, “Informational Autocrats,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 33, no. 4 (2019): 100–127.
101. “The authoritarian equilibrium rests mainly on lies, fear, and economic prosperity.” Adam Przeworski, Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 58.
102. On the Russian state officials’ manipulations of COVID-19 statistics, see, for example, Sergey Kalashnikov, “Lipetskii gubernator poprosil podchinennykh popravit’ statistiku po koronavirusu,” Kommersant, May 25, 2020, https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4356084, accessed September 7, 2021.
103. See John Burn-Murdoch, Henry Foy, “Russia’s COVID Death Toll Could be 70 Per Cent Higher than Official Figure,” Financial Times, May 11, 2020; Henry Meyer, “Experts Question Russian Data on COVID-19 Death Toll,” Bloomberg.com, May 13, 2020, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-13/experts-question-russian-data-on-covid-19-death-toll, accessed September 7, 2021.
104. See Maksim Litavrin, David Frenkel, Egor Skovoroda, “Vesnoi kak minimum v 7 regionakh sil’no vyrosla smertnost’, i ofitsial’nye dannye po koronavirusu eto ne ob’yasnyayut,” Mediazona, June 30, 2020, https://zona.media/article/2020/06/30/mortality, accessed September 7, 2021.
105. This practice had a devastating effect during the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 when Soviet leaders attempted to conceal information. They publicly acknowledged the nuclear accident after a major delay after spread the alarming news in the West. For a detailed account, see Serhii Plokhy, Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy (London: Penguin, 2019).
106. On the poor quality of Soviet statistics and its post-Soviet legacies, see Mark Tolz, “Population Trends in the Russian Federation: Reflection on the Legacy of Soviet Censorship and Distortion of Demographic Statistics,” Eurasian Geography and Economics 49, no. 1 (2008): 87–98.
107. See Farida Rustamova, Andrei Pertsev, “Dazhe slovo ‘karantin’ starayutsya ne upotreblyat.’ Kak president i pravitel’stvo perekladyvayut drug na druga otvetstvennost’ v bor’be s koronavirusom,” meduza.io, April 1, 2020, https://meduza.io/feature/2020/04/01/dazhe-slovo-karantin-starayutsya-ne-upotreblyat, accessed September 7, 2021.
108. On the “optimization” of medical organizations in Russia, see Linda Cook, “Constraints of Universal Health Care in the Russian Federation: Inequality, Informality, and the Failure of Mandatory Health Insurance Reforms,” in Towards Universal Health Care in Emerging Economies, ed. Ilcheong Yi (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 269–296; Anastasia Novkunskaya, Professionalism, Agency, and Institutional Change: Case of Maternity Services in Small-Town Russia (PhD dissertation, University of Helsinki, 2020), especially chapter 2.
109. See Ilya Barabanov, Andrei Soshnikov, Svetlana Reiter, “Ona byla tikhaya-tikhaya: Kto takaya Anna Popova, vozglavivshaya bor’bu s koronavirusom v Rossii,” BBC Russian Service, May 29, 2020, https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-52775158, accessed September 7, 2021.
110. See Sergei Guriev, “Kak Vladimir Putin proigral koronavirusu,” Internetproekt.com, June 29, 2020, https://internetproekt.com/novosti/item/688326-sergey-guriev-o-tom-kak-putin-proigral-koronavirusu, accessed September 7, 2021.
111. For an in-depth analysis, see Ella Paneyakh, Kirill Titaev, Mariya Shklyaruk, Traektoriya ugolovnogo dela: institutstional’nyi analiz (Saint Petersburg: European University at Saint Petersburg Press, 2018).
112. See Elena Kuznetsova, “Teorema smertnosti: chto proiskhodit so statistikoi po koronavirusu v Rossii,” fontanka.ru, June 15, 2020, https://www.fontanka.ru/2020/06/15/69316156/, accessed September 7, 2021.
113. See Mary Ilyushina, Frederik Pleitgen, “Reality Bites for Putin’s Much hyped COVID-19 Vaccine, as Concerns over Efficacy and Safety Linger,” CNN, October 27, 2020, https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/27/health/russia-coronavirus-vaccine-sputnik-v-reality-check/index.html, accessed August 29, 2021; Brendan Cole, “Putin’s World-Beating COVID Vaccine Faces Doubts from Doctors and Russians,” Newsweek, December 8, 2020, https://www.newsweek.com/russia-putin-sputnik-v-coronavirus-vaccine-kremlin-1553136, accessed August 29, 2021.
114. Denis Y. Logunov, Inna V. Dolzhikova, Dmitry V. Shcheblyakov, Amir I. Tukhvatulin, Olga V. Zubkova, Alina S. Dzharullaeva, Anna V. Kovyrshina, Nadezhda L. Lubenets, Daria M. Grousova, Alina S. Erokhova, Andrei G. Botikov, Fatima M. Izhaeva, Olga Popova, Tatiana A. Ozharovskaya, Ilias B. Esmagambetov, Irina A. Favorskaya, Denis I. Zrelkin, Daria V. Voronina, Dmitry N. Shcherbinin, Alexander S. Semikhin, Yana V. Simakova, Elizaveta A. Tokarskaya, Daria A. Egorova, Maksim M. Shmarov, Natalia A. Nikitenko, Vladimir A. Gushchin, Elena A. Smolyarchuk, Sergey K. Zyryanov, Sergei V. Borisevich, Boris S. Naroditsky, Alexander L. Gintsburg, “Safety and Efficacy of an rAd26 and rAd5 Vector-Based Heterologous Prime-Boost COVID-19 Vaccine: An Interim Analysis of a Randomised Controlled Phase 3 Trial in Russia,” The Lancet 397, no. 10275 (2021): 671–681.
115. See Andrew Higgins, “Slovakia Claims a Bait-and-Switch with the Russian Vaccines it Ordered.” The New York Times, April 8, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/08/world/europe/slovakia-coronavirus-russia-vaccine-sputnik.html, accessed September 7, 2021; Ladislav Charouz, “Can the Czech Health Minister Have His Cake and Eat It Too?,” The New Federalist, April 14, 2021, https://www.thenewfederalist.eu/can-the-czech-health-minister-have-his-cake-and-eat-it-too-a-game-of?lang=fr, accessed September 7, 2021.