Although COVID-19 pandemic is far from its ending, and it is too early to draw even tentative conclusions regarding its effects, judging by excessive mortality of Russian citizens, one may argue that Russia responded to pandemic much worse than most of developed countries - by the end of 2021, the number of victims exceeded 1 million persons. This outcome resulted from numerous factors, including insufficient funding of public health and ineffectiveness of health policy in Russia during the entire post-Soviet period. However, pernicious effects of bad governance - a politico-economic order, which is aimed at rent-seeking as the major goal of governing Russia - played a major role in devastating outcomes of pandemic. Bad governance contributed to a poor quality of governance in Russia, according to evaluations of several international agencies. It emerged and consolidated in Russia in the early twenty-first century due to many actions of political leadership. Against this background, the pandemic became an exogenous shock, which aggravated numerous previous vices of bad governance in Russia. The article is focused on the impact of mechanisms of governing the Russian state, their incentives for various actors, and effects of political and policy decisions of Russian authorities from the viewpoint of consequences of pandemic for Russia and its citizens.