Russia

MOSCOW, September 28. /TASS/: Russia’s coronavirus cases grew by 8,135 in the past day, a record high since June 16, and the total case tally reached 1,159,573, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Monday.

According to its data, the growth in the past two days stood at 0.7%.

Some 2,217 new coronavirus cases were confirmed in Moscow, 237 in St. Petersburg, 212 in the Moscow Region, 193 in the Rostov Region, 165 in the Nizhny Novgorod Region and 158 in the Voronezh Region.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has sent a first batch of its Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine to Belarus for clinical trials, the first such delivery of the jab abroad, Russian sovereign wealth fund RDIF said on Monday.

Volunteers in Belarus would begin receiving the Russian vaccine from Oct. 1, the Russian Direct Investment Fund which is backing the vaccine developer, said.

MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/: Moscow calls on the parties to the conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh zone to immediately cease fire and begin negotiations to stabilize the situation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

"According to the available information, the situation in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has sharply deteriorated," the ministry said. "We call on the parties to immediately cease fire and begin negotiations in order to stabilize the situation," the Russian diplomatic service stressed.

MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/: The number of people injured in an overhead pedestrian crossing collapse in the Moscow region increased to over 50 people, press service of the Main Directorate of the Russian Emergencies Ministry in the Moscow Region told TASS.

"As of 13:00 Moscow time, 51 people were injured. All of them are in various hospitals. Some of them have turned to doctors on their own," the department said.

MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a congratulatory telegram to Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov on the occasion of the national holiday - Independence Day, noting that Moscow attaches great importance to the strategic partnership with Ashgabat, the Kremlin press service announced on Sunday.

MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/: Production of oil and gas condensate in Russia is projected at 507.4 mln tonnes in 2020, a 9.5% decrease compared with 2019, whereas gas output is expected to drop by 6.4% to 690.8 bln cubic meters, according to the country’s social and economic development for 2021 and the planned period of 2022 and 2023 presented by the Economic Development Ministry.

MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/: Over 3,000 residents of Moscow have already been vaccinated against the coronavirus, the mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin said on Sunday in an interview with Rossiya 1 TV channel.

"More than 3,000 volunteers have already been vaccinated against the coronavirus. None of them have problems. People feel good. I myself went through this vaccination procedure and you see - nothing happened to me, although several months have already passed," Sobyanin said.

MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/: The number of coronavirus cases in Russia increased by 7,867 over the past day to 1,151,438 people, the operational headquarters for combating the spread of the coronavirus told reporters on Sunday.

According to the headquarters, the daily growth was 0.7% for two days.

The lowest daily growth rates were recorded in the Nenets and Chukotka Autonomous Districts (0%), the Chechen Republic (0.2%), the Moscow Region, the Chuvash Republic, and the Tula Region (0.3% each).

MOSCOW, September 26. /TASS/: Hackers carried out attacks several months ago on computers of Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine’s developers, Director of the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology said on Saturday.

MOSCOW, September 26. /TASS/: Russia’s commission for selecting cosmonauts will suggest extending the current selection until December in a letter to Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin, the press service of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center told TASS.

"The selection commission made the decision to suggest the head of Roscosmos extending the selection until mid-December ," the press service said.

The press service said the commission examines several would-be cosmonauts every week and has already selected a number of "candidates to candidates."