MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/. Reports about "the real scale" of the coronavirus epidemic in Russia published by some media outlets are not true, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
Allegations about "the real scale" of the epidemic were earlier published in a joint report by Meduza (designated in Russia as a media outlet acting as a foreign agent), Holod and MediaZona, who claimed that the Russian Health Ministry’s register of coronavirus patients already contained over 29 mln names.
"Unfortunately, I don’t know what Holod is but I have read Meduza’s publication and could not make head or tail of what it said. It is some kind of a compilation of God knows what, frankly," the Kremlin spokesman noted.
"There is no need to cite this publication because it doesn’t reflect the reality," Peskov warned, adding that he would not comment on the report. He also stressed that "a wide range of information [on the coronavirus situation] is published every day."
The Russian presidential spokesman asked reporters if they had contacted the anti-coronavirus crisis center for additional information. "I bet that the Kommersant newspaper has not sent a single message to the Health Ministry and the crisis center to get information on the relevant figures," Peskov said.