this thread lays out some top-level evidence suggesting Russia's new COVID-19 test protocol was approved in 2018, ready for use in Sept 2019.
How can you develop a new test protocol that works to detect a disease you can't possibly know exists yet?
or for the RU govt to publish all of their CoV primer sets and full protocol for COVID19 testing -rule out the possibility that there was prior knowlege of the existence of this strain.