Corona Daily 048: Russia’s Booming Business

Tanya, the Russian doctor, read the serial number on the Sputnik V vial twice before entering it into the system. The scanned copies of the person’s passport and SNILS (individual insurance account number) were in the file. Tanya made sure they were accurately input.

That evening, Oleg, to whom that passport belonged, logged in to his medical portal account. He was delighted to see the information about his first shot of Sputnik V. The Russian government’s lovely software provides space for the vaccinated people to write comments in the portal on a daily basis. They can write any symptoms, allergic reactions, vaccine side effects. As per protocol, they should write 1, 2,3,7,14,21,22,23,28 and 42 days after the first dose. Any serious comment may automatically trigger a call from the doctor. Oleg wondered if he should write something there. Maybe: left arm sore. Head aching.

Finally, he decided against it. He was getting late to drive to the night club.

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Precisely three weeks later, Doctor Tanya, dressed in her uniform, once again was looking at copies of Oleg’s identity papers. She fed in the system the serial number of the vial in her hand. She verified the details in the system. This was the gentleman’s second shot. Having done her job, she poured out the vial. She then took out the next set of papers, and the next vial. There was nobody else in her room.

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Oleg, who lives in the south of Moscow, logged in the same evening, his heart in his mouth. In a business transaction there is never any guarantee the other party will perform as promised. Bravo! It was there. The certificate that said he was fully vaccinated with Sputnik V. There was an accompanying QR code. Now he would retain his job in the supermarket. He can enter any restaurant, club. If he really were to fall ill, he would have access to the free medical service.

The whole thing was worth paying 25,000 rubles for.

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Russia is battling with several pandemics. Despite suppressing covid-19 data, cases and deaths are surging dramatically. Moscow has reached new records this week. Putin has repeatedly said vaccines won’t be mandatory. He has never worn a mask, neither is there a picture of his getting vaccinated. His spokesman confirmed today that vaccination was not mandatory, not de facto nor de jure.

However, Moscow’s mayor has made vaccination mandatory for people working in trade and service industries. Employers must ensure at least 60% employees are vaccinated with first dose until 15 July, and second dose before 15 August. Many regions across Russia have introduced what is called a “voluntary mandatory vaccination”. Though it is not a crime, unvaccinated people can lose their jobs. They can’t go on vacations, because trains, flights, and hotels won’t accept unvaccinated Russians.

This has created a huge demand, and a booming black market, for the vaccination certificates.

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Initially, the vaccination certificates were available relatively cheaply in paper form. For up to 3000 rbls, they would be sent in envelopes home. A negative PCR coronavirus test results are even cheaper, and readily available.

But the Russian government is smarter. The electronic QR code will be needed even to enter a restaurant or a bar in Moscow. The brilliant Russian software engineers can easily forge QR codes to fool a waiter in a restaurant. But in other places, such as airlines, they may be allowed to verify the code in the central system.

The resourceful Russian black marketers have started creating what I would call “genuine fake vaccination certificates”. This online vaccination is accomplished by doing everything exactly as it would be done, except throwing the dose out rather than in the person’s arm.

Any simple Google or Yandex (Russian Google) search for “buying vaccination certificate” would direct a person to the messaging app Telegram and dozens of forums on Dark Net. Several investigative reporters posing as clients paid and obtained the vaccination certificates and the QR codes successfully. One reporter got a certificate saying he was vaccinated both times in Saratov, a town where he had never been in his life.

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Ravi