Autocrats LIE

[No surprises here] Russian COVID deaths three times the official toll:

Russia's deputy prime minister has revealed more than 80% of excess deaths this year are linked to COVID-19, which would mean its death toll is three times higher than previously reported. 

Excess deaths are the difference between the total number of deaths registered and the average over the previous years for the same period. Official figures say 55,827 people have died with COVID-19 in Russia. The deputy prime minister said excess deaths would take that to 186,000.

Countries use different methods when reporting deaths related to the virus, which makes international comparisons difficult. Russia has been criticised for calculating its official deaths from COVID-19 based on the number of post-mortem examinations that list coronavirus as the main cause of death. However, this means that other deaths linked to COVID-19, which did not list it as the main cause of death, will not have been included.

The new numbers mean Russia's coronavirus death toll could be the world's third-highest, after the US with 335,000 deaths and Brazil, which has had 192,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

More than 3.1 million infections have been reported in the country.