Russia

MOSCOW, October 12. /TASS/: Russia’s eighth State Duma delegates elected Vyacheslav Volodin as chairman at their first session on Tuesday. His nomination was supported by 360 out of 450 delegates. His contender Dmitry Novikov from the Communist Party garnered 61 votes.

Volodin was nominated by the United Russia party. He served as chairman in the seventh State Duma as well.

The vote was open. Other factions did not nominate candidates for this post.

MOSCOW, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Russia and the United States failed to make any major progress on Tuesday in resolving a row over the size and functioning of their embassies and there is a risk that relations could worsen further, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

With ties already at post-Cold War lows, the two countries are in dispute over the number of diplomats they can post to each other's capitals, though Moscow said it was willing to lift restrictions imposed in recent years.

SEVASTOPOL, October 11. /TASS/: The Ivan Papanin-class multi-purpose reefer ship, developed by the St. Petersburg-based company Ugreftransflot, will be able to serve the Northern Sea Route’s infrastructure, and Arctic scientific and military bases without icebreaker support thanks to its hull reinforcement and electric propulsion system, curator of the project and member of the company’s board of directors Victor Kot told TASS on Monday.

MOSCOW, October 11./TASS/: The Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research has set a target for October to launch the clinical trials of its CoviVac coronavirus vaccine for the 60+ age group, the center’s Director General Aidar Ishmukhametov told TASS on Monday.

MOSCOW, October 11. /TASS/: The British tabloid The Sun is a very unscientific newspaper, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said while commenting on an article claiming that Russian secret services had allegedly obtained information about the composition of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

"The Sun is a very well-known and a very unscientific newspaper. This is possibly our attitude to these publications," Peskov said.

MOSCOW, October 11. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday spoke over the phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, the Kremlin press service reported.

MOSCOW, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin, seen coughing during a televised government meeting, reassured officials on Monday that he was fine and said he was being tested for COVID-19 virtually every day.

"Don't worry, everything is fine. They test me practically on a daily basis not just for COVID-19 but all kinds of other infections, so it's all good," the Kremlin leader replied when Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the upper house of parliament, expressed concern about his health.

MOSCOW, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said on Monday that a prison commission had designated him an extremist and a terrorist, but officially no longer regarded him as an escape risk.

Navalny said on Instagram that he had been summoned before a commission at the prison in Vladimir region, east of Moscow, which voted unanimously in favour of the change of status.

ORENBURG, October 10. /TASS/: The death toll from methanol poisoning has risen from to 34 in the Orenburg Region, located in the south of the Urals, after two more people died in the recent hours, the press service of the regional government told journalists on Sunday.

MOSCOW, October 10/TASS/: The Russian Army, Air Force and Navy Volunteer Society (DOSAAF) has suspended all flights of L-410 planes pending the end of the probe into the crash of an L-410 plane in Tatarstan, DOSAAF reported on Sunday.

"On instructions from the chairperson of the Army, Air Force and Navy Volunteer Society, Alexander Kolmakov, all flights of L-410 type planes have been suspended until the end of the probe," it said.