Self-isolation in the regions of Russia

1 Syria

The Russian and the Turkish military carried out a joint check of the posts located along the ‘M-4’ highway which links Aleppo with the Hasakah province — Alexander Zhukov, a representative of the Russian military police, reported. The patrol lasted for 1 hour 10 minutes. The route was over 60 km. The task of the joint patrol was to monitor the situation and verify the compliance with the ceasefire, as well as to study the possibility of an unhindered movement along a section of the highway beyond the Euphrates River. The water supply was also checked. “There is a problem with the virus in the world now. We need to keep ourselves clean these days more than before” — the representative of the Turkish side underlined.

2 Syria

The Syrian Ministry of Health reported the second death from the new coronavirus in the country. The message of the Ministry of Health was broadcast by the ‘SANA’ news agency. The Syrian government decided to completely ban the movement of their citizens between the provinces, in order to counter-act the spread of the new coronavirus. The ban comes into force on Tuesday, starting from 16:00, local time. Earlier on 25th of March a curfew was imposed in Damascus and other cities in Syria, starting from six in the evening until six in the morning.

3 Russia

The Russian operational HQ, made to fight the new coronavirus infection, reported that the number of people infected with the new coronavirus in Russia has increased by 500 people over the past day. 2,337 people are currently sick, 121 have recovered, and 17 people died. Given the regulatory acts signed by some local authorities of Russia it is clear that half of the Russian regions have decided to introduce additional restrictive measures for their citizens, following the example of Moscow and the Moscow Region, all because of the threat of the new coronavirus. From now on, one should not leave the apartment unless it is a case of emergency. ‘Social distance’ was introduced as well — it is now necessary to stay at a distance of 1.5 meters from each other. The use of taxi is an exception. The Russian President Vladimir Putin called such measures «justified». He urged the Russians to take them seriously.

4 Russia

During a plenary meeting on Tuesday the Russian parliament passed a bill that enhances the criminal liability for a violation of the sanitary-epidemiological rules. A violation of these rules by an infected person that results in an accidental mass spread of the disease will be punishable by a fine of up to 1,000,000 rubles, or by deprivation of the right to hold certain governmental posts, or to engage certain activities for up to 3 years, or an imprisonment for up to 3 years. If such violation led to an accidental death of a person, or it was a deliberate try of a mass spread of a disease — the fine goes up to 2,000,000 of rubles, and the imprisonment goes up to 5 years. In case of death of 2 or more people — the maximum imprisonment time goes up to 7 years. A deliberate violation that resulted in death will be qualified as ‘terrorism’, ‘hooliganism’ or ‘sabotage’, and it will be punished under the relevant articles of the Criminal Code. The amendments to the Code of the Administrative Violations have been approved — they impose fines for the uninfected citizens of up to 300,000 rubles for the violation of the quarantine regime.

5 Iraq

The ‘Al Mayadeen’ TV reports that the US started deploying ‘Patriot’ AA missile systems in the Anbar province of Iraq, located in the west of the country. It was specified that the air defense systems are being deployed in the ‘Ain al-Assad’ military base, in which some of the US-led international anti-terror coalition forces are located. No comments were received from the Iraqi authorities on this issue.