Not so.
Much as I gag, retch, punch myself in the face and burst in to tears at saying this...... the RT article is broadly correct. And no l don't fancy Putin.
The death rate isn't now, and likely won be, dramatically different from a bad flu year.
I've seen articles on about page 17 of the Times or the Torygraph o slow news days in the past where some government scientific bod has been wittering on about the severe winter we've just had has led to an extra 25,000 or so deaths than could have been normally been expected.
Same goes for the 2003 heatwave. That killed tens of thousands in Europe.