Russia

MURMANSK, December 10. /TASS/: The Northern Fleet’s large anti-submarine warfare ship Vice-Admiral Kulakov has returned to its home base of Severomorsk after 5-month deployment in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, the Fleet’s press office reported on Thursday.

MOSCOW, December 10. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to meet with members of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights on Thursday, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed, adding that the meeting will last for about two hours and that all information about it will be published on the Kremlin website.

"In total, about two hours will be allocated for the practically live transmission of this event. If it is held longer than that, a full transcript of the meeting will be published on the presidential website," he assured.

MOSCOW, December 10. /TASS/: The preliminary data obtained in the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine trials show that the efficiency of the jab stands at 69.3% after the first component is administered and 96.2% after the second, member of the independent monitoring committee examining the results of the vaccine’s clinical trials Ramil Khabriyev said Thursday.

Earlier, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) reported that the coronavirus vaccine is 95% effective.

KALININGRAD, December 9. /TASS/: A group of the Baltic Fleet’s warships comprising the corvettes Boiky and Steregushchiy returned to its home base of Baltiysk after successfully accomplishing long-distance deployment missions in the North Atlantic, Fleet Spokesman Roman Martov told TASS on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, December 9. /TASS/: The state trials of Russia’s Uran-9 tracked unmanned combat ground vehicle (UCGV) will be completed this year, Ground Forces Commander-in-Chief Army Gen. Oleg Salyukov said in an interview with the Krasnaya Zverda newspaper published on Wednesday.

"State trials of the Uran-9 UCGV will be completed this year," he said.

According to the official, various robotic platforms are currently in development in Russia.

MOSCOW, December 9. /TASS/: Russia’s coronavirus cases grew by 26,190 in the past day and the total case tally reached 2,541,199, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Wednesday.

In the past day, the growth rate did not exceed 1%.

The lowest growth rates were registered in the Chukotka Autonomous Region (0.5%), the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region, Dagestan and the Republic of Altai (0.6%).

MOSCOW, December 9. /TASS/: Crimea is Russia’s sovereign territory, and the country has the right to do everything necessary there to guarantee its security according to the norms spelled out by international law, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday, commenting on the Ukraine-initiated resolution on the "militarization" of Crimea approved by the UN General Assembly.

MOSCOW, Dec 9 (NNN-TELESUR) — Russia’s President Vladimir Putin ratified a protocol on space exploration cooperation for peaceful purposes signed with Argentinan authorities on Oct 8, 2019.

Besides the optical-electronic surveillance to alert over dangerous situations in the circumterrestrial space, the Protocol allows the deployment of ground stations supervised by the Russian global positioning system (Glonass).

It also provides for cooperation in manned space missions, launch services, and the production of space equipment.

09 Dec 2020; MEMO:  Russia is ready to produce a coronavirus vaccine in Algeria, Russian Ambassador to the North African country, Igor Belyaev, announced yesterday.

"Russia is ready to cooperate with Algeria to design a vaccine on the local level," Belyaev told Sputnik, adding that he had discussed the matter with the Algerian health and pharmaceutical industry minister.

MOSCOW, December 8. /TASS/: The European Union has given up attempts to play the role of one of the centers in a multipolar system and is entirely US-centered, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a video conference meeting of the Russian International Affairs Council on Tuesday.