The COVID-19 pandemic found Russia in a state of fundamental fragmentation of public opinion, compounded by a rise in authoritarian leadership style and practices, as well as media polarisation. Top-down political communication from the authorities spun the decisions in a way to make them appear to demonstrate openness and equanimity, while media became ‘informationalist,' and people largely mistrusted both the official statistics and the measures that were introduced but followed partially at best. We argue that a long-term break in trust between political power, the media and the public has played a crucial role in how Russia reacted to the challenge of COVID-19.