St. Petersburg had lighter Covid-19 restrictions because residents are ‘more educated’ than Muscovites – vice governor

Russia’s varied local responses to the coronavirus have been the cause of much debate, and one leading St. Petersburg official couldn’t resist using the city’s relatively relaxed rules to take a jab at an old rival – Moscow.

Speaking to a local TV channel, Vice Governor Yevgeny Elin explained that his city did not impose a strict quarantine because the residents are better educated than people in Moscow.

“You can’t compare Moscow and St. Petersburg. We did not introduce such severe restrictions like in Moscow,” Elin said. “In our opinion, this is justified. This is not because we are smarter, but because we believe that we have much better prepared citizens, a more even composition of the population, more educated, and more qualified.”

In late March, Moscow introduced stringent self-isolation rules, banning residents from leaving their homes without a good reason. For any travel outside of the permitted purposes, Muscovites had to apply for a pass online. In St. Petersburg, there were no such restrictions.

As of Saturday morning, Moscow has 204,428 confirmed cases of Covid-19, whereas St. Petersburg has just 20,305. Moscow is home to more than twice the population of Russia’s second largest city.

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