Europe

MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/: The spring draft campaign to the Russian Armed Forces will not be postponed over the coronavirus and will take place between April 1 and July 15, as planned, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said Friday.

"We have paid special attention to the upcoming draft. It will take place with strict compliance with the federal law, in the planned time span," Shoigu said.

MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/: The article by the Dutch de Volkskrant newspaper about alleged Russian attempts to obstruct the investigation of the 2014 MH17 Boeing crash is misinformation that seeks to influence the court proceedings in the Hague, Russian Foreign Ministry announced Thursday on its website’s "rebuttals" section.

MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/: A citywide quarantine in Moscow due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) situation is not currently under discussion, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

"This is not currently under discussion whatsoever," he said in response to a question on whether Moscow may be fully closed off to combat the spread of the virus.

Earlier, Moscow officials also refuted reports of a planned citywide quarantine.

MOSCOW, March 19. /TASS/: The United States finds annoying the Russian-Turkish agreements on Syria’s Idlib and looks ready to use any pretext for upsetting a political settlement in that country, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing on Thursday in the wake of growing contacts between senior US officials and ringleaders of the pseudo-humanitarian organization White Helmets operating in Syria.

MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/: Submarines of Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet will conduct test firing of hypersonic missiles shortly, Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Alexander Moiseyev said.

"In the nearest future, our submarines will begin test-firing hypersonic weapons. We have already received our orders," he said, speaking to Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper.

MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/: Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia and Saudi Arabia are not waging any wars over oil prices. He is certain that other states should not interfere in the partnership between the two countries.

"There are no price wars between Russia and Saudi Arabia. There is a very unfavorable pricing environment for many countries," he told reporters.

According to him, Russia and Saudi Arabia have "good relations, a partnership." "We do not think that anyone should intervene in these relations," Peskov added.

20 March 2020; AFP: The pharmaceutical industry expects it will take 12 to 18 months to roll out a coronavirus vaccine, executives said Thursday, as they jointly pledged to make it available worldwide based on need.

Bureaucracy could be slashed to speed up the process -- but the time needed for safety testing could not be compromised, industry chiefs and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations told a virtual press conference hosted in Geneva.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has asked 65,000 former nurses and doctors to return to work and will deploy final-year medical students to fight the coronavirus health crisis, the health ministry said.

As the coronavirus outbreak sweeps across the world, governments, companies and investors are grappling with the biggest public health crisis since the 1918 influenza pandemic, panicked populations and imploding financial markets.

Final year medical students and student nurses are also being offered the chance to take temporary roles to boost the NHS frontline even further.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Friday as the world’s richest nations poured unprecedented aid into the global economy to stop a coronavirus-driven recession and U.S. President Donald Trump hinted he may intervene in the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up $2.12, or 7.4%, at $30.59 a barrel by 1012 GMT.

U.S. crude futures for April CLc1 rose $2.23 to $27.45. The front-month contract expires later on Friday. The more active U.S. crude contract for May CLc2 was up $2.29, or 8.8%, at $28.20.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has not been tested for the new coronavirus and does not need to undergo such a test because he is healthy and has no symptoms, the Kremlin said on Friday.

Russia has reported 199 coronavirus cases so far, less than in many other European countries. But the figure has risen sharply in recent days and one person diagnosed with the virus has died.

“Thank God, he always feels brilliant,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call when asked if Putin had undergone a coronavirus test.