Moscow lifts virus lockdown despite thousands of new cases

Moscow emerged last week from one of the world’s strictest coronavirus lockdowns as City Hall abruptly lifted all restrictions on movement, despite nearly 6,000 new cases of Covid-19 in three days, and gave the green light to shops and businesses to reopen ahead of a referendum that could keep President Vladimir Putin in power until 2036. On the Old Arbat, a bustling pedestrian zone near the Kremlin, the grim realities of Covid-19 seemed to fade in the summer heat as cafes and restaurants prepared to welcome their first customers for months. In an underpass near Red Square, musicians entertained an enthusiastic crowd with raucous rock music, while on Friday, the Russia Day national holiday, City Hall urged people to bake cakes, decorate them with the national flag and “invite your grannies and grandads” in for a slice. The end of the lockdown came as a major surprise. Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow and head of Russia’s Covid-19 taskforce, had previously insisted that coronavirus curbs would only be lifted once the number of new daily cases in the Russian capital had fallen to “the tens, or hundreds”.