WASHINGTON, May 14./TASS/. Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov has sent a message to the NYT executive editor with a demand to refute the article about COVID-19 death rates in Russia, the press service of the Russian embassy said.
"We confirm that the ambassador sent a letter to the NYT editor-in-chief demanding that a retraction be published," it said.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the ministry would send letters to the Financial Times and The New York Times editorial offices demanding their reports about allegedly understated coronavirus-related death statistics should be refuted. Also, she said that a similar message was dispatched to the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Desir and UNESCO Secretary-General Audrey Azoulay.
On May 12, The Financial Times claimed that the real death toll from the novel coronavirus-related disease allegedly exceeds the official statistics by 70%. The New York Times also published a story about the pandemic death rate in Russia. Meanwhile, WHO Representative to the Russian Federation Melita Vujnovic said there were no facts of deliberate underreporting the coronavirus deaths in the country.
To date, a total of 252,245 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 53,530 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 2,305 fatalities nationwide.