Coronavirus death toll triples in Russia after government admits to downplaying COVID-19 outbreak

Russia has admitted its national coronavirus death toll is more than three times higher than previously reported, making it the country with the third-largest number of fatalities.

For months President Vladimir Putin has boasted about Russia’s low fatality rate from the virus, saying earlier this month that it had done a “better” job at managing the pandemic than Western countries.

But since early in the pandemic, some Russian experts have said the Government was playing down the country’s outbreak.

On…