Russia’s national death toll from coronavirus could be 70 percent higher than the government’s official data show, as the Kremlin struggles to curb the spread of Covid-19 despite a seven-week long lockdown. The Financial Times’ analysis of all-cause mortality data in Moscow, the capital, and St Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, found 2,073 more deaths in April relative to the historical average of the previous five years.
Official Covid deaths in the two cities came to just 629 for the same period, leaving 1,444 deaths in excess of normal mortality levels unaccounted for. If added to the reported national figure of 2,009 Covid deaths as of Monday morning, this would mean a 72 percent increase in Russia’s national death toll.
Russia has made it illegal to publish or discuss “fake news” about the pandemic in the country, a decision that critics say could be used to muzzle independent media reports that contradict the government’s official statements. President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly told citizens that the pandemic is “under control”, despite claims from a doctors’ association linked to opposition activists that the government has covered up the scale of the medical crisis.
The Kremlin has pointed to official data showing higher numbers of tests and lower death tolls than other big countries as signs that it is tackling the pandemic, but the country’s health ministry has admitted that not everyone who dies while infected with Covid-19 will have the virus listed as their cause of death. The FT found 1,841 more deaths in Moscow in April when compared with the average number for that month over the past five years, according to data released by the city authorities. That is three times the government’s official tally of 600 deaths from coronavirus in the city last month.
Moscow is the epicenter of Russia’s coronavirus pandemic and accounts for more than half the country’s deaths and total infections. The excess mortality figures show Moscow’s death toll is the highest figure for April since at least 2010.