Russia Coronavirus Update: Leaked Audio Tape Sparks Suspicions Of False Reporting Of COVID-19 Data in Nation

A recent leaded audio file has embroiled Russian Gov. Igor Artamonov in a foggy controversy. A brief conversation involving two people entailed a regional official instructing staff to alter the COVID-19 stats of the country.

This has sparked suspicion, as to whether the talk was a dark deal between two influential officials in a bid to paint a rosy picture amid the pandemic -- that is diametrically opposed to the reality.

As reported, the conversation involved phrases like, “We need to correct this, to convince Moscow that we don’t have 72 [unclear], don’t put the region’s neck on the line," “We are at a critical stage, someone’s head needs to be chopped off” and “don’t tell me you are soft. Is it really so hard to change the data?” This sparked widespread irk and fury as soon as it began to circulate on social media on Monday, May 25. The conversation gets murkier mid-way. “It’s not a matter of one click and we are done,” said the recipient. “It’s complicated,” he added.

Incidentally, the governor seemed in no mood to listen and seemed to have ordered the recipient to get down to business. Upon further probe, Artamonov admitted to one of the voices in the audio being his but urged that it was misinterpreted.

The politician insisted that the scraps from the conversation were spilled to pique the intrigue of people, but had little truth in them -- and on the contrary, was an attempt to correct “double reporting” on testing figures. Elaborating on the same, Artamonov gave his stance to a publication.

“We have three services,” said the governor to a Znak publication. “Some give data to one place, and others to another [...] You get a situation where the figures are not entirely factual if you don’t keep a handle on them,” he added.

Artamonov’s explanation doesn’t seem entirely convincing. And, this has more to do with the fact that Russia’s COVID-19 data remain unchanged for weeks on end. Not too long ago, a medical collapse was reported in Dagestan. Pharmacies in the region were out of medical supplies, and strangely enough, despite the crisis, official figures were stable at just 29 deaths.

Top officials in the Russian ministry have time and again refuted such claims. “Russia is the only country in the world to do post-mortems of all COVID-19 cases,” said Anna Popova, the head of Russia’s consumer protection watchdog during a state interview on Sunday evening. “There is no margin for error,” Popova added.