Russia

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s first big international shipment of its coronavirus vaccine -- 300,000 doses sent to Argentina last week -- consisted only of the first dose of the two-shot vaccine, which is easier to make than the second dose, sources told Reuters.

Unlike most other COVID-19 vaccines, which are given as two shots of the same product, the Russian Sputnik V vaccine relies on two doses delivered using different inactive viruses, known as vectors. The Gamaleya Institute that developed the vaccine says it is more than 91% effective after the two-dose course.

MOSCOW (AP) — Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said Monday its army units have been attacked by “an illegal Armenian armed group” in Nagorno-Karabakh, killing one Azerbaijani serviceman and wounding another.

The ministry said the attack took place in the Khojavend region on Sunday afternoon and was thwarted, leaving all six attackers dead.

The statement comes just hours after the Armenian Defense Ministry denied media reports of fighting in the neighboring Hadrut region and said the ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh were “strictly observing” the cease-fire.

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/: The Northern Fleet’s Project 971 ‘Shchuka-B’ (NATO reporting name: Akula) nuclear-powered submarine, the Leopard, has been floated out after repairs and upgrade at the Zvyozdochka Ship Repair Center, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"Zvezdochka has completed the hangar stage of the Leopard nuclear-powered submarine’s repairs and modernization. The submarine left the shipyard’s main hangar to have the remaining work completed at the pier of the enterprise," the ministry said in a statement.

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally grew by 28,284 in the past day to 3,050,248, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Sunday.

A day earlier 29,258 coronavirus cases were reported. The growth rate in the past three days did not exceed 1%, according to the crisis center.

Some 6,620 new COVID-19 cases were registered in Moscow in the past day, bringing the total case tally in the Russian capital to 786,204. A day earlier, some 7,480 coronavirus cases were recorded in Moscow. The number of coronavirus cases in the capital rose by 0.8%.

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin is not planning to hold a meeting with business representatives late this year, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS on Sunday.

"Yes, the meeting won’t take place," Peskov said.

Earlier, Head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) Alexander Shokhin told TASS that this meeting is usually held in the end of the year - from December 25 to December 28.

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: A new British coronavirus strain has not been registered in Russia so far, Deputy Director for Research of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of the Russian sanitary watchdog Alexander Gorelov said on Sunday.

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/: The United States’ sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline are an uncovered cowboy attack or a hostile takeover, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" program on Rossiya-1 TV channel.

"This is an absolutely uncovered cowboy attack or a hostile takeover. How else could this be called?" Peskov said commenting on the sanctions against Nord Stream 2.

Peskov stressed that the work on the gas pipeline was underway and this project was about to be completed.

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/: Russian space agency Roscosmos filed a lawsuit against its subsidiary, the Progress Rocket and Space Center, for producing a satellite that stopped working in the orbit, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said on his Facebook page.

"Several years ago, our subsidiary used a rocket that it had manufactured to put into the orbit a satellite that it had also manufactured. Soon, the latter had ‘died’ in the orbit," he wrote. "In line with the current legislation, we are obliged to file a lawsuit in connection with the satellite’s failure."

MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/: The construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is a priority project for Moscow, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS, adding that Russia is going ahead with its implementation.

"That is a priority project and we are going ahead with its implementation," he said.

"The remaining questions [should be addressed to - TASS] the Americans," Peskov said when asked whether the international agenda around the Nord Stream 2 project may change due to Joe Biden's victory in the US presidential election.

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/: Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has apprehended four members of the Islamic State terror group (outlawed in Russia) who were plotting a terror attack near the building of the law enforcement agencies, the FSB Public Relations Center informed TASS on Saturday.