Virus in the System: Russia and the Corona Crisis
In this new CSS Analysis Jeronim Perović argues that the coronavirus crisis is a strain on the Russian economy and constitutes a stress test for the popularity of the regime. Its political system will be busy managing the domestic consequences of the pandemic for some time, which could result in foreign policy being more strongly guided by economic considerations.
Russia reacted quickly, closing its land border with China early on at the end of January 2020, after information became available about the extent of the outbreak of the virus in the Chinese city of Wuhan. By the end of March, the administration had closed all national borders and air traffic was also completely suspended. Despite these strict measures, the virus spread throughout Russia too. The Russian administration reported the first official infection with the novel coronavirus on 2 March. One month later, the number of cases had shot up. By the end of June, the country already had over 600,000 infections, placing it third in the world in terms of the number of cases, behind the US and Brazil.