Karma? Beijing bans entry for Russians due to Covid-19, nine months after Kremlin imposed similar restrictions on Chinese citizens

As Russia reported a record rise in coronavirus numbers on Friday, China responded by banning Russian citizens from entering the country, a somewhat ironic move, given Moscow applied the same rules to the Chinese last February. 

Back then, Moscow blamed the “worsening epidemiological situation” in China for the decision. In fact, the first Covid-19 restrictions came a fortnight earlier, in late January, when Russia shut the far-eastern border between the two nations for all but commercial traffic.

“Due to the epidemic situation, we are announcing the temporary suspension of entry to China for persons with Chinese visas and residence permits for work, personal issues, and family reunification,” the Chinese Embassy in Moscow announced on Thursday. The ban will not apply to persons holding diplomatic, service, courtesy and C category visas.

“These are temporary measures that China is forced to take in response to the current epidemic situation.”

China has also suspended entry to the country for citizens of the UK, Belgium and the Philippines.

In the last few weeks, the coronavirus situation in Russia has worsened. On Friday, Moscow’s confirmed cases grew by 6,253, the highest figure since May 7. On a national scale, the country broke the 20,000 daily case mark for the first time.

The world's first registered case of Covid-19 occurred in December 2019, in the Chinese city of Wuhan. According to government figures, the country has largely brought the disease under control, reporting 91,552 cases of the virus and 4,741 deaths. Across the border in Russia, official statistics state that the country has suffered 1,733,440 known infections.

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