US scapegoats China for domestic pandemic response failure: Russian scholar

MOSCOW - The United States must address domestic challenges caused by COVID-19 rather than put all its efforts into looking for scapegoats to blame for its own problems, according to Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) Andrey Kortunov.

In an article published on the RIAC website, Kortunov argued that the investigation led by the US intelligence community into COVID-19 origins has a clear end-goal of diverting attention from the country's pandemic response failures and casting blame on China.

According to the expert, the US administration strives to link the spread of COVID-19 to China, which is inherently wrong.

"The epic US failure to cope with the pandemic, especially in comparison with the undoubtedly superior performance of China ... casts a shadow on the ability of the US to serve as the global model and as the global leader," wrote Kortunov.

According to the article, even with a huge health budget, the United States showed it was dangerously unprepared to fight the pandemic and continues to be the country with the world's most COVID-19 deaths and confirmed cases to date.

"Instead of looking for scapegoats overseas, the US administration has to focus on putting its house in order," Kortunov wrote, adding that the pandemic has exposed fundamental flaws rooted in the US health care system.

"Badmouthing China will not help in addressing these problems, while carefully studying the Chinese experience in coping with the pandemic and in managing its public health system probably will," he concluded.

Kortunov said that leadership in the 21st century should not be marked by aggressive smear campaigns but empathy and the ability to learn from best practices, which the United States has yet to demonstrate.