Russia admits coronavirus death toll is three times higher than official figures

The new figure means Russia has the third most deaths in the world

Russia's deputy prime minister revealed the true number of coronavirus deaths in the country, going far beyond the official tally of 55,265. Many had treated the Russian figures with scepticism, its reported 3 million infections would make such a death toll disproportionately low compared to the rest of the world. Compared to the same period last year Russia's all cause mortality increased by 229,700 from January to November, according to state data agency Rosstat, news agency AFP reports. This prompted the country's deputy prime minister Tatiana Golikova to say that "more than 81%" of those deaths are attributable to coronavirus, making the Russian death toll 186,000 people or higher. Vladimir Putin had previously argued that his country's death toll was so low because of its success in handling the pandemic, not locking down and simply asking Russians to obey public health rules. Others suggested there had been difficulty in attributing deaths to COVID-19 because of a requirement for an autopsy to list it as cause of death. The new figure means that Russia is only behind the US (335,141 deaths) and Brazil (191,570) when it comes to death toll from the pandemic, but the state's official statistics have not been updated to reflect this fact. Similar concerns are expressed about the scale of the problem in China, where the communist government is pursuing an express policy of torturing and imprisoning journalists reporting on the true extent of the pandemic there.