President Vladimir Putin said Russia is emerging "confidently" from the coronavirus crisis, drawing a contrast with the United States, where he suggested Donald Trump's efforts to tackle the pandemic have been hamstrung by political bickering.
In an interview with state TV, Putin said Russia has suffered "minimal losses" from the virus and praised the government for working in a coordinated fashion "as a single team." Protests sweeping the U.S. are a sign of "deep internal crises," he said.
Putin said it would be hard to imagine a situation in Russia where regional governors ignored his instructions. In the U.S., some states have defied guidance from the White House in dealing with the deadly virus.
"The president says 'you need to do such-and-such,' and the governors on the ground say _ 'get stuffed,"' Putin said. "It's a problem of party interests being placed above those of society as a whole and the interests of the people."
While Russia has the third-highest number of cases globally, after the U.S. and Brazil, the country's death toll from COVID-19 is comparatively low. New coronavirus cases in Russia grew 1.7% in the past day with an additional 119 deaths in the period, bringing the overall total to 6,948.
