Russia backs down from unpopular Covid restrictions

Moscow: Russian authorities on Monday backed away from introducing some of the restrictions for the unvaccinated that were announced a month ago and elicited public outrage all across the vast country where vaccine uptake remains low.

The speaker of the State Duma, Russia’s lower parliament house, on Monday announced the withdrawal of a bill restricting access to domestic and international flights and trains to those who have been fully vaccinated, have recently recovered from COVID-19 or are medically exempt from



vaccination.  The bill, along with another outlining similar restrictions in many public places, had been expected to go through the first reading on Thursday.

But speaker Vyacheslav Volodin cited “a joint decision by the State Duma and the government” to withdraw it from the parliament’s agenda for now. The other bill is still going forward.

“We need to be balanced when working out these decisions so that the opinion of the people is taken into account,” Volodin said.