In this issue, a paper from Vassiliy Vlassov asks if there is epidemiology in Russia. The answer he gives using some empirical evidence on the lack of use of some epidemiological tools is indeed worrying. In his words “Epidemiology in Russia remains in an archaic state of science” or “I regret that epidemiology in Russia is more dead than alive”. The diagnosis of the accompanying editorial from Laurent Chenet and Maria Telishevska is not more optimistic. They comment on various deficits of Russian health statistics that make …