It is a balance more than three times higher than the official count.
The Russian government on Monday admitted some 186,000 deaths from Covid-19 this year, which makes Russia one of the most bereaved countries in the world.
These new figures are based on a broader definition of victims infected with the virus, under new accounting closer to international standards.
They oppose those published daily by the government, which only counts Covid deaths confirmed by autopsy.
An excess of mortality of nearly 230,000 people
On Monday, the Rosstat statistics office reported an excess of mortality between January and November of 229,700 people, up 13.8% compared to the same period in 2019. And "more than 81% of this increase in mortality over this period is due to the Covid and the consequences of the disease due to the coronavirus ”, that is to say a little more than 186,000 deaths, indicated, according to the Russian press agencies, the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of health, Tatiana Golikova.
This toll is more than three times higher than the 55,265 official deaths recorded since the start of the pandemic by the Russian government site dedicated to the fight against the pandemic.
However, the authorities only count from day to day Covid-19 deaths confirmed by an autopsy.
It is on the basis of these figures that President Vladimir Putin congratulated himself in mid-December that Russia had “better” managed the pandemic than in the West.
But, according to Rosstat, in November alone 25,788 people died from contamination with the virus.
The agency classifies these deaths into three categories: confirmed deaths caused by Covid;
those whose Covid is suspected as the main cause of death;
and those where the Covid has accentuated other pathologies, causing death.
This is the first time that Rosstat has published detailed monthly figures, without giving these details for the previous months.
Russia ranked third in the world
Rosstat figures now place Russia 3rd in the world in terms of deaths, behind the United States (more than 330,000 deaths) and Brazil (more than 190,000), while the country, like the rest of the world, has been hit since the fall by a second epidemic wave.
In October, according to Rosstat, Russia had already recorded 50,000 more deaths compared to 2019, including 22,761 deaths linked to the coronavirus.
The Kremlin nevertheless rejected the idea of any new national containment, after that of spring, in order to preserve the economy, deeming itself well prepared and counting on the effectiveness of its vaccine, Sputnik-V, which was deployed at the beginning. December.
However, most regions have imposed the wearing of protective masks and limited access to certain places of recreation.
In terms of contamination, Russia remains fourth in the world, with 3,078,035 cases of Covid-19 identified, according to the Russian government.
Since the start of winter, the country has been breaking records for new daily infections every week.
The most affected city remains the capital, Moscow, and its region, as well as the second city of the country, Saint Petersburg.
But the situation is also worrying in the poorest and often under-equipped regions.
At least 700,000 doses of vaccine delivered
To overcome the epidemic, the government is basing its hopes on mass vaccination of the Russian population thanks to the national vaccine, Sputnik V. The Russian Minister of Health, Mikhail Murashko, judged on Saturday that this vaccine was "safe and effective For mass vaccination of the population and authorized its use in people over 60 years of age.
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Authorities have not yet released the total number of people already vaccinated.
For its part, the Gamaleïa center, which produces Sputnik V, indicated that nearly 700,000 doses of the vaccine had already been delivered to Russia.
But the population still needs to be convinced of the benefits of vaccination, in a country where mistrust of the authorities remains strong.
According to a poll by the public center VTsIOM, published last Thursday, only 38% of Russians intended to be vaccinated.