Moscow is a reliable source now, according to CNN, which published a report this weekend touting state-provided figures that supposedly show Russia’s efforts to fight the coronavirus outbreak have been largely successful.

“Does Russia have coronavirus under control? According to information released by Russian officials, Putin's strategy seems to have worked," CNN reported on March 21.

This is a hell of a thing to see from CNN, considering this is the same newsroom whose obsessive efforts to promote the narrative that Russia stole the 2016 U.S. presidential election saw it hunting down and confronting a Florida woman whom its reporters accused of unwittingly coordinating with Kremlin-connected trolls by promoting a pro-Trump Facebook page.

The report on Russia's effort to control the pandemic opens with the following paragraphs:

Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week his country managed to stop the mass spread of coronavirus -- and that the situation was 'under control,' thanks to early and aggressive measures to keep more people from getting the disease. Does Russia have coronavirus under control?



According to information released by Russian officials, Putin's strategy seems to have worked. The number of confirmed Russian coronavirus cases is surprisingly low, despite Russia sharing a lengthy border with China and recording its first case back in January.



[...]



Russia's early response measures — such as shutting down its 2,600-mile border with China as early as January 30, and setting up quarantine zones — may have contributed to the delay of a full-blown outbreak, some experts say.

This is great news if you believe Moscow.

“Rospotrebnadzor, Russia's state consumer watchdog, said Saturday that it had run more than 156,000 coronavirus tests in total,” the report continues.

It adds, “By comparison, according to CDC figures, the United States only picked up the pace in testing at the beginning of March, while Russia says it has been testing en masse since early February, including in airports, focusing on travelers from Iran, China, and South Korea.”

The article goes on to suggest that skepticism for Moscow's reporting comes mostly from Russian citizens who remember their government’s handling of the Chernobyl disaster and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

But don't worry, says CNN. Russian officials are taking steps to ensure that only true facts are reported and shared by their people.

“Authorities have moved swiftly to counter what they see as misinformation,” the report claims. “In early March, Russia's Federal Security Service and internet watchdog moved to take down a viral post claiming the real number of coronavirus cases was 20,000 and that the Russian government was covering it up. Facebook and Instagram users in Russia then started to see coronavirus awareness alerts linking to Rospotrebnadzor's official website.”

It is not until the 12th paragraph of a 23-paragraph story that CNN drops this on its readers:

News reports of shortages in protective equipment have also fueled skepticism. And some experts have raised doubts about the reliability of Russia's testing system, which depends on a single laboratory. A report by PCR.News, a media outlet for medics and healthcare professionals, pointed out that the only approved coronavirus testing system, produced by Vector in Novosibirsk, has a lower sensitivity than other virus tests, raising concerns about false negatives.



David Berov, the first confirmed coronavirus patient in Moscow, wrote on Instagram that his second test showed a negative result, while the first and third tested positive for coronavirus.

The report then cites Russian doctor Anastasia Vasilyeva, who alleges authorities “are covering up real coronavirus numbers by using pneumonia and acute respiratory infection as a diagnosis.”

Amazingly, CNN gives Russian officials and the World Health Organization, whose handling of the COVID-19 virus thus far has been tragically incompetent, the last word on the skepticism directed at Moscow's reporting.

“Putin himself,” the CNN report notes, “addressed the concerns about the statistics Wednesday, saying the government might not have the full picture but is not covering up the numbers.”

Oh! Well, that settles it!

At no point in the story does CNN itself warn readers that the data may be cooked. The report never even entertains the notion that the numbers may have been falsified in order to make it appear as if Russian President Vladimir Putin is in total control. It chooses instead to place all reasonable skepticism on the shoulders of anonymous Russian citizens and a doctor who is associated with an “opposition figure.”

You think an American newsroom that has spent the last several years warning correctly that Putin is a master propagandist would be a bit more reluctant to parrot Moscow's coronavirus numbers. But you would be wrong.

From spearheading an embarrassing and error-riddled campaign to prove Russia colluded directly with the Trump 2016 campaign to parroting state-provided data that put the U.S. to shame all while casting Putin as a heroic and ultra-competent public figure.

Call it the return of media credulity.