Page 14 - RusRPTAug20

Infection rates in the Russian capital were falling fast in June, although they continued to climb in the regional cities, which are running several weeks behind Moscow. Now experts all these gains have been lost because of the Kremlin’s impatience; Sobyanin lifted the restriction after a meeting with Putin, who insisted on relaxing the restrictions regime in order to hold the parade and the referendum.
Russia is not alone in seeing a resurgence of the virus as a​ ​second wave spreads across the region​ and in other countries around the world. Poor countries like Armenia and Ukraine have been desperate to restart their economies as they can ill afford a protracted lockdown and have seen infection rates soar as a result. As bne IntelliNews reported​ ​Armenia has chosen not to reimpose restrictions​ despite having some of the fastest growing infection rates in the world and​ U​ kraine was also discussing renewing restrictions in July​ after new infection rates hit fresh record highs at the end of June.
2.6 ​Russian business and consumer confidence
In the first six months of 2020 private bankruptcies in Russia spiked by 47% to 42,700 confirmed court cases, ​The Bell reports on July 7 citing the official data of Fedresurs.
As reported by ​bne IntelliNews​, simplified private bankruptcy procedures during the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic were seen as a risk for the banking and other sectors, as they could result in a wave of defaults on loan payments, social security contributions and ​delays on utility bills​.
Private bankruptcies spiked in June as people were getting out of coronavirus lockdown, with 11,500 confirmed cases.
At the same time, the number of corporate bankruptcies went down by 26% to 4,500 cases in 1H20, which is linked to the ​temporary ban on filing bankruptcy proceedings​ amid the COVID-19 crisis.
14​ RUSSIA Country Report​ August 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com