This is the third episode of the Russian Context, brought to you by Novaya Gazeta. This time, we speak about preventive measures against the pandemic of COVID-19 in Russia and how the Kremlin tries to find a balance between saving President’s rating and saving people from death. 

We talked with Aleksandr Panchin, a Ph. D. Biology and member of Russian Science Academy’s commission against pseudoscience, about russian people’s fears and prejudices towards vaccination and QR-codes. On November 27, opponents of covid restrictions visited the "red zone" in the city clinical hospital No. 15 in Moscow with an excursion. The reason for this was the appeal of the head physicians of covid hospitals who suggested to show seriously ill patients and morgues to anti-vaccination agents in order to encourage people to be vaccinated against coronavirus. Natasha Glukhova, our senior reporter, told us how was the tour.

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