The Art of Data Manipulation in Russia: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

With Russia submerged in the uncharted waters of the open conflict with Ukraine and, indirectly, the Western world, there are rising concerns as to whether we can trust Russian official statistics. In this analysis, I draw several lessons on potential data manipulation from the arrival of the pandemic during the politically sensitive time of the national referendum on constitutional amendments in 2020, which gave rise to the doctoring of COVID-19 mortality figures.