Moscow
The Russian sovereign wealth fund (RDIF) has concluded another agreement for the production of the Corona vaccine Sputnik V in India. The agreement with the company Stelis from the Indian pharmaceutical group Strides provides for the production of at least 200 million doses of the vaccine from the third quarter of 2021, as the sovereign wealth fund announced on Friday. In November, RDIF had already signed an agreement with Indian group Hetero for 100 million doses annually.
In contrast to dozens of other countries, the Russian vaccine has not yet been approved in India, where clinical trials are still underway. At the same time, Moscow is counting on broadening the production of the vaccine due to the high international demand in the pandemic.
Around one and a half months after an internationally heavily criticised court ruling, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been taken to a Russian prison camp. He is being held in the Vladimir region about 100 kilometres east of Moscow, Navalny wrote on Instagram. Although he believes the numerous media reports about torture in the camp, he has so far not been able to observe any violence, the 44-year-old wrote. He himself is under constant surveillance, with cameras everywhere. "But if you take it with humour, it is possible to live."
Sergei Maximishin, the deputy chief physician at the clinic in Omsk, Siberia, has died "suddenly" at the age of 55. The hospital's administration said so "with regret" in an official statement, U.S. broadcaster CNN reported. No details were given on the cause of death.
The hospital treated Alexei Navalny last summer immediately after he was poisoned. The Kremlin critic had collapsed on a flight from Tomsk, Siberia, to Moscow in late August. Initially, he was then treated at the hospital in Omsk after an emergency landing of the plane. Two days later, still in a coma, he was taken to Berlin's Charité University Hospital for treatment.
Around the trial of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, Russian security forces have again taken massive action against demonstrators in several cities. According to human rights activists, a total of almost 1,400 people were arrested. Supporters of the most important Putin opponent called for demonstrations immediately after the verdict was announced. According to the non-governmental organization OVD-Info, the police arrested 1116 protesters in Moscow alone, and 246 in St. Petersburg.
Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has been sentenced to serve 3,5 years in a penal colony for violating his probation rules after leaving Russia for medical treatment in Germany following his poisoning.
Multiple landmarks in Moscow such as the Red Square had previously been blocked off by police in expectation of the verdict.
Seven metro stations have been closed amidst pro Navalny protests in Moscow that demand the release of the opposition leader from prison. The announcement of the public transportation services stated that this has been done at the request of the police. In addition, several streets near the Kremlin have been closed.
In raids against relatives and associates of the imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, his brother was among those arrested. Oleg Navalny was initially detained for 48 hours, Navalny's associate Ivan Zhdanov announced on Twitter. The reason given was a violation of Corona hygiene regulations, Navalny's team wrote on Telegram. Lawyer Lyubov Sobol, a close confidant and associate of Alexei Navalny, and an employee of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation were also detained, he added.
The state-owned Direct Investment Fund, which co-finances the vaccine and markets it abroad, announced in Moscow on Friday that Russia wants to help out the European Union with its vaccine. In the second quarter, 100 million doses of the vaccine Sputnik V could be delivered, which would allow 50 million people to be vaccinated. The prerequisite is that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approves the active ingredient.
Independent studies testing the efficiency of the vaccine are outstanding.
The administration of outgoing US President Donald Trump wants to close the two remaining US consulates in Russia. As the U.S. State Department confirmed to the AFP news agency, the U.S. representation in Vladivostok is to be closed and the consulate in Yekaterinburg will cease operations for the time being. After that, the embassy in Moscow would be the last U.S. diplomatic representation in Russia.
Pilots of the Russian state-controlled airline Pobeda have chosen a route that traces the contours of a male sexual organ during an unauthorized maneuver with an aircraft with 100 passengers on board.
The airline's supervisory board has now drawn the consequences in this case: The head of the company was warned and his deputy fired, as the Moscow newspaper "RBK" reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, the pilots wanted the maneuver to be understood as a solidarity action for the Russian soccer player Artjom Dsjuba. As the captain of the national team, Dsjuba had been excluded from the games in November after an intimate video of him was widely viewed on the Internet.
The departure from the route, which was dangerous for passengers, was said to have occurred on a flight from Moscow to Ekaterinburg on November 11. Pobeda is a subsidiary of the Russian airline Aeroflot.
According to reports masked uniformed security forces raided the Moscow offices of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Authorities charged one of his key aides with contempt of court. FBK director and Navalny’s lawyer Ivan Zhdanov tweeted that "I’m being told these are bailiffs looking for 29 million rubles ($375,000) as part of enforcement proceedings".
Both the Armenian and the Azerbaijani government have announced that they will join peace talks in Moscow.
Russian opposition figured Alexei Navalny had his Russian apartment seized and his bank accounts frozen after a court order while recovering from suspected poisoning in a Hospital in Berlin, Germany, so his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh.
"They seized the assets and the apartment of a person who was in a coma," Yarmysh said. "This means the flat cannot be sold, donated or mortgaged."
The move comes after a lawsuit was filed by the Moscow Schoolchild catering company, which is owned by Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin who is known as "Putin's chef".
During a visit of Alexandar Lukashenko to Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would grant a loan worth €1.26 billion to Belarus. Putin also supported Lukashenko's initiative to reform Belarus's constitution.
Putin told Lukashenko, at the joint press conference: "I am sure that, considering your political experience, the work in this direction would be organised on the highest possible level."
Russia announced they would also continue the pre-planned joint military drills. At the same time, Putin emphasised that Russian soldiers would "return to their permanent deployment locations" after the routine ends.
The foreign ministers of China and India announced an agreement to ease tensions after recent clashes on their contested Himalayan border.
Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi and Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar met in Moscow on Thursday and issued a five-point statement aimed at ending a simmering confrontation.
Wang Yi said, "it is normal for China and India to have some differences as two neighbouring powers, but to put the differences in the proper place in bilateral relations."
S. Jaishankar stated "India does not want to see an escalation of tension in the border areas between India and China. India’s China policy has not changed, and I believe China has not changed either."
During the Russian constitutional referendum, voters backed a constitutional change that would ban same-sex marriage by defining marriage as a union of a woman and a man only. Lawmakers in the Russian parliament have now introduced a legislation draft to implement this change.
In addition to explicitly banning same-sex marriage, couples of the same sex will be prohibited from adopting children. While this is no explicit change in the current practice,s it explicitly outlaws the option. According to one of the Senators, Yelena Mizulina, the changes will also affect transgender people.
The northeastern Siberian town Verkhoyansk has hit a new record temperature high at 38°C (100.4°F) in the Arctic Circle on Saturday. The town is located at 67.5 degrees north latitude and 3,000 miles (4,828 kilometres) east of Moscow with an average June temperature of 20°C (60°F).
The town with a population of 1,300 has a significant temperature range, with temperatures below -45°C (-50°F) during Winter. Saturday's data has not been verified by another entity yet but, as Sunday's temperature was recorded at 35.2°C (95.3°F), it does not seem likely that the Saturday reading was a mistake.
U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) stated it would not use the Russian ventilators sent to it by Moscow while an investigation is carried out into their safety.
Faulty “Aventa-M” ventilators are the suspected cause of a fire at the Saint George's Hospital in St Petersburg in which five Covid-19 patients died.
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin declared the 13 million residents of the Russian Capital, Moscow, are to stay home, exceptions made for medical emergencies and run to nearby shops.
The city will enforce this rule using a system of special passes and electronic surveillance -- cameras with facial recognition and cell phone location data.
The Moscow healthcare department announced that people who return from countries with increasing infection rates such as China, South Korea, Iran, France, Germany, Italy and others should self-isolate themselves for 14 days inside their own homes. Not following this could be punished by up to five years in prison.