# Russian x-risks newsletter winter 2020-2021: free vaccines for foreigners, bird flu outbreak, one more nuclear near-miss in the past and one now, new AGI institute.

I got my covid vaccination in December and it easily available in Moscow, especially in malls, where only an ID is required for a jab. Thus, foreigners can be vaccinated, and a Brazilian husband of one Russian girl used this opportunity. However, it is not Pfizer, but the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine. Also, Russian regions are getting much less vaccination, despite Sputnik's export to other countries. Anyway, I had mild side effects like high temperature a day after each of two jabs. Only 4 millions people [got](https://tass.ru/obschestvo/10793817) at least one shot at the end of February in Russia (for 140 mln population). 

Actual morality from covid in Russia could be much higher than it was reported, [according](https://meduza.io/feature/2021/02/10/teper-pochti-ofitsialno-rossiya-na-pervom-meste-po-chislu-zhertv-koronavirusa-na-dushu-naseleniya-eto-rezultat-deystviy-vlastey-letom-2020-goda?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=live&utm_campaign=live) to data from additional mortality. Russia could be even a world leader by deaths per million and total deaths. 

Meanwhile, bird flu [has infected](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56140270?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Bbbc.news.twitter%5D-%5Bheadline%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D&at_custom2=twitter&at_custom3=%40BBCNews&at_custom4=9CB66DF0-73C0-11EB-B58A-D0D04744363C&at_medium=cu) several workers on a farm in Southern Russia, which is the first time for this strain and may be connected with its mutation. There are also [reports](https://www.kavkazr.com/a/31102445.html) of wild birds’ die-off in this region.

“Russia's Sberbank will soon [open](https://tass.com/economy/1230907) the first non-profit academic institute in Russia where artificial intelligence will be studied, said bank CEO Herman Gref at the AI Journey conference on Thursday… A German scientist based in Switzerland, one of the world's most famous specialists in the field of artificial intelligence, Jürgen Schmidhuber, was invited to become an Honorary Director of Science of the Institute.” 

Putin [promised](https://lenta.ru/news/2020/12/04/hype/) serious resources for AI development.

A piece of hardware [was stolen](https://www.gazeta.ru/army/2020/12/07/13390489.shtml) from the Russian Doomsday Plane during its renovation, and this is raising questions about nuclear security. 

A false alarm [was issued](https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/14/politics/russia-missile-drill-false-alarm-us-base/index.html) on Ramstein military base in Germany after a test launch of 4 Russian ballistic missiles.

Almost 40 years ago, in 1983, the Soviet Union [was](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/soviet-nuclear-war-able-archer/2021/02/17/711fa9e2-7166-11eb-93be-c10813e358a2_story.html) at trigger-happy state because of NATO drills. Planes were prepared for a preemptive strike using nukes. 

Putin [spoke](https://www.gazeta.ru/politics/news/2021/01/27/n_15543350.shtml) about the risks of the end of civilization, because of a global conflict, but nobody cares because the conflict about A. Navalny’s arrest was the main news of the day.