MOSCOW — Russia’s propagandist in chief was seconds away from starting his show on state television, a two-and-a-half-hour fiesta of flattery celebrating President Vladimir V. Putin’s coolheaded response to the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s calm in contrast to the lockdowns and panic gripping Europe and the United States.

Then came an alarming update on Russia’s situation from the mayor of Moscow. Because of the virus’s accelerating spread, the mayor decreed on Sunday evening, all residents of the capital would be forbidden to leave their homes starting Monday and will need special passes to move around the city.

By late Monday, at least 14 Russian regions and the country’s second biggest city, St Petersburg, had announced that they, too, were ordering residents to stay at home, indicating that the world’s largest nation, a vast territory covering 13 time zones, could soon be in lockdown.

For weeks the Kremlin and its cheerleaders in the state news media have insisted that, unlike Italy, Spain and, more recently, the United States, Russia could tackle the virus without major disruption.