President Vladimir Putin will likely remain in self-isolation despite receiving both doses of one of Russia’s domestically made coronavirus vaccines, the Proekt investigative outlet reported Monday.
Putin, 68, has lived in one of the most protected virus-free bubbles since the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic swept across Russia last spring. He has worked via videolink at his residence outside Moscow, which is equipped with a disinfectant tunnel, while his rare in-person visitors are required to spend two weeks in quarantine.
“Putin will most likely live in isolation for a long time,” Proekt cited an unnamed person close to the presidential administration as saying.
The Kremlin said Putin received his second and final dose of a Russian Covid-19 vaccine, which it refused to name, behind closed doors nearly four weeks ago.
Proekt reported that Putin’s own upcoming schedule indicates that the president does not plan to abandon his self-protection measures.
The Kremlin has not commented on Proekt’s report of Putin’s planned self-isolation as of Monday afternoon.
BBC’s Russian service has reported that the billions of rubles spent on efforts to protect Putin from the virus largely went toward quarantining journalists, drivers and pilots who come into contact with him.
Russia last spring had introduced one of the world’s strictest coronavirus lockdowns with sealed borders, closed businesses and QR-code movement passes in Moscow, the epicenter of Russia’s Covid-19 outbreak. Most restrictions have since been lifted across the country and life in Moscow has all but returned to normal since the start of 2021.
Putin has hailed three vaccines developed by Russia as key to the country’s goal of developing herd immunity by the fall. But the current pace of vaccinations suggests that Russia is on course to have fully vaccinated 70% of its population by mid-2022.
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