04-01-2020, 12:48 PM
From The Guardian
Coronavirus:
Russia sends plane full of medical supplies to US
Critics likely to claim Moscow will exploit goodwill
gesture as public relations coup
![[Image: NoTPljh.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/NoTPljh.jpg)
Boxes with medical masks and equipment onboard a Russian plane at Chkalovsky airport.
Photograph: Russian Defense Ministry/Tass
Andrew Roth in Moscow
Wed 1 Apr 2020 05.01 EDTLast modified on Wed 1 Apr 2020 06.24 EDT
Russia has dispatched a cargo plane with masks and medical equipment
to the US after Donald Trump accepted an offer of humanitarian aid
from Vladimir Putin to fight the coronavirus outbreak.
The plane, a Russian Antonov An-124-100 military transport, left
from Chkalovsky airfield outside Moscow on Tuesday night and will
arrive in the US on Wednesday after refuelling at Shannon airport
in Ireland. Footage from the plane broadcast by Russian state television
showed stacks of cardboard boxes in the cargo hold.
The delivery is likely to stir controversy among critics of Trump,
who have said Putin will portray the goodwill gesture as a public
relations coup and use it to bolster Russia’s efforts to escape
sanctions for meddling in the 2016 US elections.
Masks and other medical equipment are also in short supply in Russia,
where the number of infected with coronavirus rose by 440 on
Wednesday to a confirmed 2,777 cases. The Moscow mayor,
Sergei Sobyanin, warned Putin last week that the official tally
of cases underestimated the severity of the outbreak.
The US has more than 188,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus
and more than 3,900 deaths attributed to the disease.
Government scientists have said working models show tens,
or even hundreds of thousands of people dying from the
disease in the US alone.
In an apparent error, Trump on Monday said the aid had already
arrived from Russia, telling reporters in the White House Rose Garden:
"Russia sent us a very, very large planeload of things, medical equipment,
which was very nice.” It was the first mention of aid from Moscow.
Later, the Kremlin announced that Putin had offered Trump the aid
during a one-on-one telephone conversation when the two sides
discussed measures to fight coronavirus.
“Trump gratefully accepted this humanitarian aid,”
Putin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told reporters.
“Now that this situation has affected everyone without
exception and is global, there is no alternative to joint action
in the spirit of partnership and mutual help.”
Peskov also said that Putin “assumes that when US makers of
medical equipment and materials have gained speed, they too
will be able to reciprocate if necessary”.
Russia has already sent planeloads of masks and other medical aid
to Italy, deploying medics in military vehicles labelled:
“From Russia with Love.” Russia’s military said the aid included
22 vehicles and mobile disinfection labs. Italian officials publicly
thanked Russia for the aid. A widely circulated report in the
La Stampa newspaper cited senior officials calling the aid
80% “useless”.
“Hopefully someone will tell Trump that he’s playing right into a
propaganda ploy,” wrote Andrew Weiss of the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace on Twitter.
Coronavirus:
Russia sends plane full of medical supplies to US
Critics likely to claim Moscow will exploit goodwill
gesture as public relations coup
Boxes with medical masks and equipment onboard a Russian plane at Chkalovsky airport.
Photograph: Russian Defense Ministry/Tass
Andrew Roth in Moscow
Wed 1 Apr 2020 05.01 EDTLast modified on Wed 1 Apr 2020 06.24 EDT
Russia has dispatched a cargo plane with masks and medical equipment
to the US after Donald Trump accepted an offer of humanitarian aid
from Vladimir Putin to fight the coronavirus outbreak.
The plane, a Russian Antonov An-124-100 military transport, left
from Chkalovsky airfield outside Moscow on Tuesday night and will
arrive in the US on Wednesday after refuelling at Shannon airport
in Ireland. Footage from the plane broadcast by Russian state television
showed stacks of cardboard boxes in the cargo hold.
The delivery is likely to stir controversy among critics of Trump,
who have said Putin will portray the goodwill gesture as a public
relations coup and use it to bolster Russia’s efforts to escape
sanctions for meddling in the 2016 US elections.
Masks and other medical equipment are also in short supply in Russia,
where the number of infected with coronavirus rose by 440 on
Wednesday to a confirmed 2,777 cases. The Moscow mayor,
Sergei Sobyanin, warned Putin last week that the official tally
of cases underestimated the severity of the outbreak.
The US has more than 188,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus
and more than 3,900 deaths attributed to the disease.
Government scientists have said working models show tens,
or even hundreds of thousands of people dying from the
disease in the US alone.
In an apparent error, Trump on Monday said the aid had already
arrived from Russia, telling reporters in the White House Rose Garden:
"Russia sent us a very, very large planeload of things, medical equipment,
which was very nice.” It was the first mention of aid from Moscow.
Later, the Kremlin announced that Putin had offered Trump the aid
during a one-on-one telephone conversation when the two sides
discussed measures to fight coronavirus.
“Trump gratefully accepted this humanitarian aid,”
Putin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told reporters.
“Now that this situation has affected everyone without
exception and is global, there is no alternative to joint action
in the spirit of partnership and mutual help.”
Peskov also said that Putin “assumes that when US makers of
medical equipment and materials have gained speed, they too
will be able to reciprocate if necessary”.
Russia has already sent planeloads of masks and other medical aid
to Italy, deploying medics in military vehicles labelled:
“From Russia with Love.” Russia’s military said the aid included
22 vehicles and mobile disinfection labs. Italian officials publicly
thanked Russia for the aid. A widely circulated report in the
La Stampa newspaper cited senior officials calling the aid
80% “useless”.
“Hopefully someone will tell Trump that he’s playing right into a
propaganda ploy,” wrote Andrew Weiss of the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace on Twitter.