Russia

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Police carried out searches on Wednesday at the Open Russia opposition group’s office in Moscow and the homes of several opposition activists running in local elections this weekend, raids that the Kremlin’s critics described as intimidation.

The Open Russia group financed by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky said the police searches were taking place as part of an old criminal investigation into Yukos, a defunct oil giant once owned by Khodorkovsky.

MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/: The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned German Ambassador to Moscow Geza Andreas von Geyr to discuss the situation around blogger Alexei Navalny, the ministry’s Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Tuesday.

"We expect Berlin to provide us with all the available data, including the results of lab tests conducted by the Bundeswehr as well as the ‘evidence’ that the German Foreign Ministry has. We are waiting to receive the German ambassador [in the Foreign Ministry’s building] on Smolenskaya Square," the diplomat said.

ARKHANGELSK, September 8. /TASS/: Bulk deliveries of a vaccine against the novel coronavirus infection to the regions are scheduled to begin in November - December, Russian Healthcare Minister Mikhail Murashko said on Tuesday during a working visit to Arkhangelsk.

Earlier the Healthcare Ministry reported that the first batch of the Sputnik V vaccine was released for civilian circulation.

"The vaccine against the coronavirus infection in mass format will begin to arrive as early as November - December," the minister said.

MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/: The Kremlin is not ready to recognize that there are political prisoners in Belarus, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

"On the whole, we aren’t ready to recognize that there are political prisoners in Belarus," he said, commenting on the situation surrounding Maria Kolesnikova, a member of the Belarusian opposition’s Coordination Council, who had been detained when trying to illegally cross the Belarus-Ukraine border.

MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko confessed that he might have overstayed his term of office, but he emphasized that he is the only one who can "protect Belarusians," according to Rossiya-1 TV channel reporter Yevgeny Rozhkov, who took part in Lukahsenko’s interview for Russian reporters.

"Yes, perhaps, I’ve sat [in the presidential chair] for a bit too long maybe, I’m shown not only on TV, but on irons and kettles as well. But truthfully I’m the only one who can protect Belarusians right now," Rozhkov quoted Lukashenko as saying Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Siberia’s Vector virology institute on Tuesday completed early-stage human trials, known as Phase II, of a second potential Russian vaccine against COVID-19, the state consumer safety watchdog was cited by the Interfax news agency as saying.

Russia registered its first vaccine candidate, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, in August. Late-stage trials of this vaccine, due to involve 40,000 participants, were launched last week.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday said he would not step down, despite a wave of protests against his rule, but did not rule out early presidential elections during an interview with Russian media, a radio journalist reported.

Lukashenko said his supporters would be attacked if he left, said Roman Babayan, editor in chief of the Moscow Talks radio station and one of the journalists who interviewed Lukashenko earlier on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, September 7. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud have discussed the prospects for the joint production of a Russian coronavirus vaccine, the Kremlin press service reported on Monday following a telephone conversation between the two leaders.

"Special attention was paid to the prospects for the joint production of a vaccine to prevent the disease developed in Russia," the press service said.

MOSCOW, September 7. /TASS/: Russia’s Health watchdog (Roszdravnadzor) has confirmed that while checking the fatality statistics at in-patient facilities, it discovered inaccuracies in registering deaths caused by the novel coronavirus infection, the medvestnik.ru medical news website reported on Monday, citing head of the agency Alla Samoilova.

MOSCOW, September 7. /TASS/: Russia hopes that negotiations on settlement in Cyprus will renew as soon as the epidemiologic situation allows, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Cypriot newspaper Phileleftheros before his visit to Cyprus on September 8.