Moscow Cracks Down on Chinese Nationals Amid Coronavirus Scare

By: Luke Teague

Oklahoma City — Since the beginning of the Coronavirus outbreak, Russia’s response has been considerably more aggressive than most of the world. They have closed their borders to most Chinese citizens, canceled flights coming from affected countries, tasked the Air Force to airlift Russian nationals back to Russia, and are banning people from more and more countries from applying for Russian visas. But for foreign nationals already inside Russia’s borders, the country’s aggressive steps to prevent domestic outbreaks may be much less reassuring.

Since Russia has not yet faced a large-scale domestic outbreak and the only confirmed cases are from Chinese citizens, the state security apparatus has cracked down especially hard on Chinese nationals within Russia.

Russian authorities have established quarantine camps throughout the country. They are monitoring tens of thousands of people for symptoms, including Russian citizens returning from overseas and foreign nationals; many of whom are Chinese.

In Moscow the anti-Chinese crackdown is especially focused. Since the beginning of February, Moscow Police task forces have conducted raids throughout the city, targeting recent arrivals from China.

The purpose of the raids is to ensure that Chinese nationals who are considered “at-risk” of carrying the virus are not violating the mandatory self-quarantine that has been ordered by authorities. These raids have targeted hotels, hostels, dormitories, and apartments of other Chinese nationals to ensure that people suspected of having the virus are not liable to transmit it to others.

Transit workers in the city have also been instructed to report suspected Chinese passengers to the police. Bus and tram drivers have allegedly received instructions to alert police if any East Asian passengers get on their vehicles, as well as to disembark other passengers if they believe someone to be a carrier of the virus.

In the Moscow Metro, one of the busiest in the world, similar precautions are being taken. As reported by the CBC, “Metro workers were instructed to stop riders from China and ask them to fill out questionnaires asking why they were in Russia and whether they observed the two-week quarantine”.

Russia is preparing to deport 88 foreign citizens who failed to remain in quarantine for the required amount of time. Source

City police forces have also been directed by the mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin, to utilize the city’s extensive surveillance camera network to track Chinese nationals suspected of violating quarantine procedures. This is done by utilizing facial recognition technology, which “pings” Moscow Police if it registers the face of a Chinese national who arrived in the country fewer than 14 days prior (the length of the quarantine procedure). The system then tracks the suspect throughout the city until police can arrive on scene to apprehend them.

For those foreign nationals who violate the quarantine procedures, Russian authorities established a no-exceptions deportation program earlier in February. As of the time of writing, Russia is preparing to deport 88 foreign citizens who failed to remain in quarantine for the required amount of time.

Russia is currently being harshly criticized for its targeting of Chinese nationals, especially as the virus has progressed far beyond the Chinese borders. However, Russian authorities defend their policies that focus on Chinese nationals. Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, has informed Chinese authorities that they will continue their surveillance regime of all suspected carriers of the disease, regardless of national origin.

So for the foreseeable future, Russia’s aggressive measures to prevent the spread of Coronavirus are set to continue, and presumably, only grow harsher as the global outbreak of the Coronavirus increases in severity.