No protection for Russia's doctors?

Russia currently has the highest number of new infections in Europe. In many places hospitals have become hubs of infection. Medical staff are complaining about a lack of protective equipment, which is causing infections and deaths within their ranks. The press also condemn the situation.

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Ekho Moskvy (RU) /

Doctors expendable items for Kremlin

In an article posted by Echo of Moscow the left-wing Telegram channel SerpomPo accuses the state of failing the doctors:

“The 'memorial list' of Russian doctors who who have died in the pandemic has more than one hundred names on it since yesterday. ... Of course Russian doctors know they are a high-risk group, like everywhere else in the world. But much depends on society's attitude to their work. In other places they are heroes for society, but here... For the state they are nothing but expendable items. There is no other way to explain its criminal inability to provide them with protective equipment - at the same time as it is selling 'humanitarian aid' to the US and lifting the ban on exports of medical protective equipment. ... The state has abandoned them.”

Gazete Duvar (TR) /

Just a show for the rest of the world

Three Russian doctors who had criticised the lack of equipment in the country have fallen out of windows in recent weeks, two of them dying as a result. Yet at the same time Putin is sending tons of protective clothing to other nations, the website Gazete Duvar marvels:

“In Russia, where there are problems with the healthcare system, where the number of cases is rapidly rising, three doctors have fallen out of windows under mysterious (!) circumstances, and the head of state has declared that there is 'still a lack of equipment'. Yet at the same time planes and ships carrying aid are being sent out and presented in the press like a show. Is Russia really ignoring what is happening in its own back yard and at the same time, presenting itself as a strong and helpful country?”