Russia

MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/: The decision to hold a Victory Day parade in Russia on June 24 has been made taking into account the improving epidemiological situation in the country, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Russia’s Channel One.

MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/: Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Speaker Valentina Matviyenko has thanked the medical workers who are fighting the COVID-19 pandemic on the frontline in a message timed to the Day of Medical Worker.

"Medicine is not just work, it is real service. We have seen this clearly during the coronavirus pandemic. I want to express my deepest gratitude to all medical workers of clinics, hospitals, ambulances: everyone who has been fighting on the frontline. We fully understand how difficult this has been for you," she said.

TASS, June 20: Russian-Polish relations are at their lowest point, which is against both countries’ interests, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday on Russia’s Channel One.

"Our current relations with Poland are not just lacking, they are bad. They are perhaps at the lowest possible level, which is against both our countries’ interests, because the people of our countries would be interested in the opposite," he said.

Peskov added that Russia is disappointed by Warsaw’s confrontational policy.

MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/: Russia has documented 7,889 cases of COVID-19, a disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in the past 24 hours, the anti-coronavirus crisis center informed reporters on Saturday. For four days running, the daily increase in new cases has not surpassed 8,000.

According to the crisis center, Russia has documented a total of 576,952 cases of the virus. The daily increase rate reaches 1.4%.

The lowest increase rate has been documented in Moscow (0.5%), with 1,057 new cases documented.

NOVO-OGAREVO, June 19. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to accelerate work on draft laws aimed at prevention of petroleum product spills.

"I ask the government and the State Duma to expedite work on the relevant bills," the head of state said, opening the meeting on the progress in diesel oil spill relief operations in Norilsk.

"Mechanisms of preventing such situations, appropriate, timely and comprehensive response to them and compensation of consequences should be provided in laws," Putin added.

MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/: Protesters in Portland, Oregon, toppled a statue of George Washington, America’s first president, who led the country from 1789 to 1797, CBS reported Friday.

The bronze monument was installed near the building of the non-profit German-American Society. According to the report, the vandals who attacked the statue, first draped it with a US flag, and then set fire to it. Then, they toppled the statue, smeared it with red paint and wrote "1619" on it. This is the year the first African slaves arrived in the United States.

MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin says that as head of state, he is obligated to stay connected 24/7.

"The head of state always has to stay connected, all the time, round the clock. It is just an obligation," the Russian leader said in an interview for the documentary Russia. Kremlin. Putin, a segment of which TV host Pavel Zarubin published on Instagram.

MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/: Chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev has told French senators that Russian citizens could be deprived of their right to travel in the European Union and asked the counterparts to pay attention to the issue of granting Schengen visas.

MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS: Russia’s Defense Ministry is taking all necessary epidemiological safety measures during preparations for the Victory Parade on Moscow’s Red Square on June 24 devoted to the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

"The Defense Ministry is taking all necessary epidemiological safety measures in the course of preparing for and holding the parade," Peskov said.

MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/: Kremlin considers apprehension of Belarusian presidential candidate and Belgazprombank ex-CEO Viktor Babariko an internal affair of Belarus.

"We consider it Belarus’s internal affair and, of course, we have no intention to meddle in Belarusian internal affairs in any way," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

"As for the [Belarusian] election themselves, there will most likely be observers, so all assessment will come later, after it is over," Kremlin spokesman said.