Europe

MOSCOW (AP) — In a note from jail, opposition leader Alexei Navalny urged Russians Thursday to overcome their fear and “free” the country from a “bunch of thieves,” while the Kremlin cast the arrests of thousands of protesters as a due response to the unsanctioned rallies.

STOCKHOLM, February 4. /TASS/: The Russian Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus may possibly be used in Sweden as well, the Aftonbladet newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing national vaccination coordinator Richard Bergstrom.

"We had a meeting on this subject and now we will consider it in greater detail," he said. The newspaper noted that the issue of purchasing the Russian vaccine by the EU countries has not been fully resolved yet, however, according to the new data, the preparation has the efficacy of 91%, including people of 60 years of age and older.

MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/: Russia confirmed 16,714 new coronavirus cases in the past day and the total caseload hit 3,917,918, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Thursday.

The average growth rate in new cases reached 0.43%.

The lowest growth rates were recorded over the past day in the Tuva Republic (0.06%), the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, the Jewish Autonomous Region, the Magadan, Sakhalin and Kostroma Regions (0.2%).

MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/: The Russian Federation Council (upper house) Commission on Information Policy and Cooperation with the Media considers it necessary to provide a legal option to block social media over calls for participation in unauthorized rallies, the commission said in a statement, presented by chairman Alexey Pushkov Thursday.

MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov disagrees that the large number of apprehensions during unauthorized rallies could be called repressions.

"There are no repressions, there are only measures taken by the police against the violators of law - against participants of unauthorized rallies," the spokesman said Thursday.

BRUSSELS, Feb 4, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell jets to Moscow on Thursday under pressure to confront the Kremlin over the jailing of Alexei Navalny and a crackdown on protesters.

The visit — the first to Russia by a top EU envoy since 2017 — has drawn criticism from some European capitals worried Moscow will spin it as evidence Brussels is keen to return to business as normal.

THE HAGUE, Feb 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UN’s top court has said it can hear Iran’s bid to overturn US nuclear sanctions re-imposed by Donald Trump, prompting “disappointment” in Washington, which had argued the issue lies outside its jurisdiction.

Iran’s foreign minister swiftly hailed Wednesday’s decision as a “victory” in the case launched three years ago at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The Biden administration views the New Start Treaty clinched with Russia this week as the beginning of engagement on strategic issues including multilateral arms control, a U.S. envoy said on Thursday.

Robert Wood, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, called in a speech to the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament for a new arms control drive that “covers more weapons, and eventually more countries”.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices extended gains on Thursday after the OPEC+ alliance of producers stuck to its reduced output policy and U.S. crude stocks fell, with optimism over a new U.S. pandemic relief bill adding further price support.

Brent crude futures gained 25 cents, or 0.43%, to $58.71 a barrel by 1025 GMT, having earlier hit their highest since Feb. 21 last year.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures climbed 31 cents, or 0.56%, to $56 a barrel after reaching its highest settlement level in a year on Wednesday.

LONDON (Reuters) - The world faces around 4,000 variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, prompting a race to improve vaccines, Britain said on Thursday, as researchers began to explore mixing doses of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca shots in a world first.

Thousands of variants have been documented as the virus mutates, including the so-called British, South African and Brazilian variants which appear to spread more swiftly than others.