The Real Russia. Today.

Investigating Russia’s coronavirus drug market

Friday, October 9, 2020 (Meduza’s newsletter will return on Tuesday, October 13, 2020)

• Doctors and patients in Russia are fighting for coronavirus drugs that hardly help anyone
• Russian police officials release new report on inquiry into Navalny’s hospitalization in Omsk
• Breaking Nagorno-Karabakh news: Azerbaijan and Armenia reach a ceasefire agreement after 10-hour negotiations in Moscow
• Other news briefs: A state of emergency in Kyrgyzstan, an update from Kamchatka, Apple calls out Telegram, and a non-coronavirus health crisis in Dagestan

Feature stories

💊We don’t know how to treat this

In early September, more than one million Russians were battling the coronavirus. Statistics show that many regions are now in the midst of experiencing a second wave. However, no one seems to know how to treat the virus effectively as of yet. In a special report, Meduza special correspondent Svetlana Reiter and science editor Alexander Ershov investigate the different drugs being used to treat the coronavirus in Russia and find out who’s profiting during the pandemic.

According to estimates from the DSM Group, requested by Meduza, more than 10 billion rubles (more than $130 million) were spent on coronavirus medications at Russia’s hospitals and pharmacies from February to June, inclusively. And that’s despite the fact that the effectiveness of most drugs being used to treat the coronavirus remains questionable. Maryana Lysenko, a chief physician at a Moscow hospital, believes doctors have learned how to deal with the complications from the virus, but maintains a vaccine will be the only game changer. “You want us to tell you how to cure coronavirus — at the same time, you want it to be one pill, so that we can learn to live with this virus. But that’s not going to happen,” she said.

🚔 Getting the facts straight

The Transit Police Department for Russia’s Siberian Federal District has published a new report on the inquiry in connection with opposition figure Alexey Navalny’s hospitalization in Omsk on August 20. In the report, police officials recount details of a “mine scare” at the Omsk Airport that same day, accuse employees from Navalny’s non-profit organization — the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) — of refusing to give testimony, and express doubts that a water bottle from Navalny’s hotel room was actually taken to Germany. Meduza breaks down the key points from the police report and recalls what Navalny and his associates have said on these topics.

🕊️Ten hours later

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced before dawn on October 10 that Armenia and Azerbaijan have reached a ceasefire agreement to halt the fighting over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh Republic that reignited on September 27. Both Baku and Yerevan sent their top diplomats to Moscow on Friday, October 9, for negotiations under Russian mediation. Foreign Minister Lavrov told the news agency RIA Novosti that the ceasefire talks lasted 10 hours.

During a televised address earlier on Friday, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev announced that his country’s troops had “broken through and destroyed the line of contact,” between Azerbaijan and the unrecognized Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. At the time, Aliyev assured that there will be no new line of contact between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Other news in brief

• 🚨Bishkek’s on lockdown.Following mass protests in Bishkek, President of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbay Jeenbekov signed a decree on sending military units and equipment into the capital, which will be under a state of emergency from the night of October 9 until the morning of October 21. According to the decree, the troops will be involved in “organizing checkpoints, suppressing armed clashes, ensuring the protection of law and order, and protecting the civilian population.”
• 🐡Down by the bay.A group of scientists from the Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) says it found no traces of toxins in the rivers near a major pesticide landfill in Kozelsk, which is considered to be one of the possible sources of the pollution that has tainted Kamchatka’s Pacific coastline and decimated local marine life.
• 🍏Take it back, Durov!The U.S. tech giant Apple says it never demanded that the messaging app Telegram delete entire channels created to dox police officers and polling station workers in Belarus. Company spokespeople confirmed to the website TJournal that they did reach out to Telegram, but they say Apple is only asking the network’s administrators to remove specific posts that violate the App Store’s terms of service by disclosing individual’s private data without their consent.
• 🏥Health crisis in Dagestan.Dozens of children in Dagestan have been hospitalized with signs of poisoning. According to local health officials, 42 children — including 36 preschoolers — were admitted to an infectious diseases hospital in Makhachkala with apparent acute intestinal infections. The children are reportedly in “moderately serious” condition and will remain under observation for the next week.

✍️This day in history: 132 years ago today, on October 9, 1888, Bolshevik revolutionary Nikolai Bukharin was born in Moscow. Following the October Revolution, he became editor-in-chief of the party newspaper Pravda.

Yours, Meduza