Russia

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/: Mass influenza vaccination will help diagnose the novel coronavirus, because doctors can immediately rule out flu viruses as a cause of an acute respiratory disease, Russia’s former chief sanitary doctor Gennady Onishchenko, who is now first deputy chairman of the State Duma (lower house) Education and Science Committee, told TASS.

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/: The Nauka multi-functional laboratory module planned for launch to the International Space Station (ISS) in April 2021 will be sent to the Baikonur spaceport from the Khrunichev Space Center (the module’s producer) on August 10, the press office of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos told TASS on Friday.

"Russian Railways confirmed the dispatch window for bringing out the especially valuable non-standard cargo [the Nauka module] from the territory of the Khrunichev Space Center for August 10, 2020," Roscosmos said.

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/: Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom reported about the start of fueling at the first unit of the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant (NPP).

"Fueling has begun at power unit No. 1 of the Belarusian NPP," Rosatom reported on Twitter.

Rosatom added that the first reactor fuel assembly was loaded with fuel at 11:45 am. By the end of the month, 163 fuel assemblies will sequentially be loaded.

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/: The Radio-Electronic Technologies Concern (KRET, part of Rostec) plans to produce more than 14,000 artificial lung ventilators branded Aventa-M, a source in KRET’s press service told TASS.

"The orders portfolio for supply of Aventa-M artificial lung ventilators includes a state contract with the Industry and Trade Ministry and direct contracts with medical establishments and organizations in Russia and other countries. All in all, those are over 14,000 ventilators," press service said.

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/: Twitter needs to label Deutsche Welle, BBC World News and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as state-affiliated media, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Twitter on Friday, commenting on the social network’s decision to label the accounts of state-controlled media outlets.

"We realize that labelling media accounts as 'government affiliated' is a tough job. There are so many of them. While some Russian outlets have been given the tag, other state-owned media still do not enjoy the privilege. So here are some hints," the tweet reads.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia boasts that it’s about to become the first country to approve a COVID-19 vaccine, with mass vaccinations planned as early as October using shots that are yet to complete clinical trials -- and scientists worldwide are sounding the alarm that the headlong rush could backfire.

MOSCOW, August 6. /TASS/: A third plane of the Russian emergencies ministry has taken off for Beirut, rocked by a huge blast on Tuesday, after a stopover in Saratov, the ministry’s press service said on Thursday.

"At 04:53 Moscow time on August 6, an Il-76 plane took off from Saratov for Lebanon," it said, specifying that the plane was carrying 15 specialists from Russia’s sanitary watchdog and equipment for organizing a laboratory for conducting tests for the novel coronavirus infection.

MOSCOW, August 6. /TASS/: Aeroflot Airlines will extend until August 31 the cancellation of flights to more than 80 foreign cities due to the unfavorable epidemiological situation there, the airline said in a statement.

"Aeroflot announces the forced cancellation of some of its regular international flights for the period until August 31. The decision to adjust the program of international flights was made taking into account the current epidemiological restrictions in the countries of destination," the airline said.

MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/: The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) won’t be extended and a new multilateral arms control system needs to be established in its place, Deputy Director of the Institute for US and Canadian Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences Pavel Zolotarev said during an online conference dubbed US Nuclear Ambitions: from Truman to Trump.

MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/: The integrated space system Kupol, created for monitoring ballistic missile launches, has been brought to the minimum standard strength, the CEO of the space rocket corporation Energia, Igor Ozar, said on Wednesday.

"With the launch of a fourth space satellite Tundra the space system Kupol has been brought to the minimum standard strength," he said.