Volunteers rally for elderly Russians isolated in pandemic

Standing outside her front door with a leather jacket pulled over her pyjamas, Alma Shayakhmetova takes a bag of groceries and medicines from volunteers.

At 67 she is in the most vulnerable age group ordered to stay at home by Moscow authorities to prevent them getting infected with the coronavirus.

A group of young Russians called Medical Volunteers -- many of them medicine students -- takes orders from the elderly over the phone, and brings them right to their door.

They still have to pay for their shopping, but the delivery is free.

For Shayakhmetova's order, the volunteers in face masks and surgical gloves went to a supermarket beside her block of flats for kefir, bread, milk, sunflower oil, bananas and flour.

They also picked up a common non-prescription heart medicine from a pharmacy.

Since Thursday, Muscovites aged over 65 or with chronic conditions are not supposed to leave their homes, a measure to last at least until April 14.

Moscow has paid them 2,000 rubles ($25) as compensation for extra expenses and promised the same payout when restrictions are lifted -- at least for those who observe them.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin also rescinded the right to free public transport for those over 65 to stop them making unnecessary journeys.

Some have criticised the measures as both draconian and stingy, particularly hitting those still working in retirement.

But Shayakhmetova said she supported them.

"It's better to be home," she said, adding she had been shocked by television footage of patients in intensive care.

"If we are all disciplined, naturally this will all be in a milder form."
"We elderly wouldn't be able to manage without this project" said the retired English teacher who also cares for her elderly father. "I don't need to go to a shop, they bring it all to me."
Moscow coordinator Aliya Kochesokova is just 19 but she said the volunteer campaign as whole is "supervised by the presidential administration" and "personally by Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin)."