Russia

MOSCOW, November 26. /TASS/: The upgrade of MiG-31 high-altitude fighter-interceptors will boost the efficiency of their missions, in particular to protect Russia’s northern frontiers amid other states’ growing interest in the Northern Sea Route, Merited Military Pilot of Russia, Major-General Vladimir Popov told TASS on Friday.

The pilot spoke about the modernization of MiG-31 fighters currently underway at the Sokol aviation enterprise in Nizhny Novgorod in the Volga area.

MOSCOW, November 26. /TASS/: Russia’s Sputnik V jab, if necessary, can be quickly adjusted to take on a new strain of coronavirus found in South Africa, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev said in an interview with the RT TV channel.

"We can quickly adapt the vaccine to the new variant of the coronavirus, if it is required," he said.

"We do believe that Sputnik V is for the moment the most effective vaccine against mutations of the coronavirus," he added.

MOSCOW, November 26. /TASS/: The Russia-India-China (RIC) format has contributed to building a multipolar world order and rule of international law, and is a key global and regional policy factor, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reported on Friday at the online meeting of the RIC foreign ministers.

SOCHI, November 26. / TASS /: Russian President Vladimir Putin has emphasized the importance of the commitment of the Azerbaijani and Armenian authorities to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement.

"I think that what is really important, as you have just mentioned <…>, is the fact that both sides are interested in the normalization of the situation and its further development in a positive manner," the Russian president said, addressing the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders, Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan, on Friday.

MOSCOW (AP) — Rescuers have found a survivor in a Siberian coal mine where dozens of miners are presumed dead after a devastating methane explosion, a top local official announced Friday.

Sergei Tsivilyov, governor of the Kemerovo region where the mine is located, said on the messaging app Telegram that the survivor was found in the Listvyazhnaya mine in southwestern Siberia, and “he is being taken to the hospital.”

Acting Emergency Minister Alexander Chupriyan said the man found in the mine was a rescuer who had been presumed dead.

MOSCOW, November 25. /TASS/: Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine has shown an 85.7% efficacy against COVID infection and a 98% protection against COVID related mortality, according to an independent study conducted in Hungary, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) reported on Thursday.

MOSCOW, November 25. /TASS/: Russia has registered 33,796 new confirmed COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, with the total number of infections reaching 9,468,189 cases, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Thursday.

According to the crisis center, the relative increase of new infections is at the level of 0.36%.

KEMEROVO, November 25. /TASS/: The authorities of West Siberia’s coal mining area, Kuzbass, have declared three days of mourning for the victims of the Listvyazhnaya coalmine emergency, where eleven workers are known to have died and another 35 remain unaccounted for, Governor Sergey Tsivilyov said on his official Telegram channel.

"Governor Sergey Tsivilyov declared three days of mourning on November 26-28 for the coal workers who died in the accident," the news release runs.

SOCHI, Russia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Moscow would continue providing natural gas to Serbia on terms favorable to its ally.

Putin voiced confidence that a new contract for gas supplies to Serbia would be signed quickly to replace the current one that expires at year-end.

“We will find a solution that would definitely be acceptable to our Serbian friends,” Putin said at the start of talks at his Black Sea residence in Sochi with visiting Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic,

MOSCOW (AP) — A fire at a coal mine in Russia’s Siberia killed 11 people and injured more than 40 on Thursday, with dozens of others remaining trapped, authorities said.

Efforts to rescue those trapped in the mine were halted on Thursday afternoon because of an explosion threat, and rescuers were rushed out of the mine, administrators of the mine told the Interfax news agency.