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Russia could deport foreign citizens infected with the coronavirus, said Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin , quoted by the Interfax news agency. The first two cases of the virus in Russia were known on Friday. Both are Chinese citizens who were in Russian regions bordering the Asian country. The two patients are isolated and are receiving the medical treatment they require. "We have in Russia all the necessary medicines and means of protection," said Mishustin, who took command of the government less than a month ago.

Now that this infection "has been added to the list of highly dangerous diseases, it will be possible to deport foreigners who have it and introduce special restrictions , such as isolation and quarantine," Mishustin said.

The Russian government has approved a comprehensive national plan against the outbreak of the new coronavirus that will allow Russia to prevent the entry of citizens from other countries who are infected with the virus, in addition to deporting foreigners who have contracted the disease.

Russia has suspended direct trains to China , with whom it has a border of a length of 4,300 kilometers, one of the longest in the world. During the twentieth century this space was the scene of skirmishes between two communist countries that did not always get along. The transit to the market economy also took them away for a while. But Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have recovered lost time. Two months ago, Russia and China completed the construction of the first road bridge over the Amur River, which defines the border between the two.

The coronavirus is a stone in that approach path between the two giants. All Russian airlines, with the exception of the national airline Aeroflot , will stop flying to China, Vice Premier Tatiana Golikova announced last Friday. Moscow Sheremetyevo airport later clarified that the small Russian airline Ikar would also continue its flights between Moscow and China. In fact there are four Chinese airlines, (China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Air China and China Eastern) that will continue flying to Moscow for now. All aircraft arriving from China will be sent to a terminal separate from the airport. Chinese tourist groups are the biggest driver of the growth of the Russian tourism industry since 2015.

Changes have been noticed in supermarkets . Russia's second largest food retailer, Magnit, said Monday it will suspend imports of fruits and vegetables from China due to the spread of the coronavirus and logistical complications, the RIA news agency reported. Israel, Morocco and Turkey will be the beneficiaries of the measure. Also some Russian producers.

All these 'disconnection' measures with China run the risk of damaging a relationship that had become closer in the last six years as the Kremlin's climate with the West has deteriorated. The closure of the 16 border crossings that Russia has with China , decreed last week, is a qualitative setback in relations with the Asian giant, which has just established itself as a good energy customer of Russia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry already announced last week that it had stopped issuing electronic visas to Chinese citizens , suspending a special permit that gives tourists permission for short-stay visits to St. Petersburg, the Baltic Sea enclave over Kaliningrad and several parts of the Far East of the country. Although the European Union is Russia's best customer, in terms of countries China is the largest trading partner, with fewer political disputes.

According to the Financial Times, the volume of trade between the two grew by 25% in 2018. A quarantined China will consume less energy, and that is bad news for a producer like Russia. The Foreign Ministry keeps in touch with Beijing and has clarified that the measures are "justified by special circumstances and are only temporary . "

Russian authorities want to avoid sources of infection . Last week McDonald's was prevented from holding a big party in Moscow selling hamburgers for four cents. Now Moscow even wants to postpone the Russian Investment Forum 2020 in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea, scheduled for February 12 and 14. The Russian government will study ways to financially compensate event organizers for expenses already incurred. Several schools in Moscow have suspended classes for a week, the result of parental concern.

The ruble fell around 2% last week. Many experts believe that it is mainly due to fears about how the virus can affect the growth of world trade.

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