Russia

MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/: Russia has registered 20,992 new confirmed COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours. The total number of infections has reached 6,705,523 cases, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told journalists on Friday.

According to the crisis center, the relative increase of new infections is at the level of 0.31%.

KAZAN, August 20. /TASS/: Remdizel, a leading Russian defense enterprise, will feature wheeled armor at the Army 2021 international military-technical forum, including the latest modifications of K-4386 Taifun-VDV airborne infantry fighting vehicles, the Industry and Trade Ministry of the Republic of Tatarstan announced on Friday.

MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/: Germany remains one of the main trade and economic partners of Russia in Europe and worldwide, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday before beginning talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the Kremlin.

MOSCOW, Aug 20 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel began talks with President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Friday with ties at post-Cold War lows, her final official trip to Russia before she steps down after nearly 16 years.

Relations between two of Europe's longest serving leaders soured in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, drawing broad condemnation and sanctions from the West.

Friday's talks coincide with the first anniversary of the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, an incident that severely strained Russia-Germany ties.

MOSCOW (AP) — Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny marked the anniversary of a poisoning attack against him by urging global leaders Friday to put more attention on combating corruption and to target tycoons close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In an article published in three European newspapers, Navalny chided Western leaders for relegating the fight against corruption to a “secondary agenda” item and said that graft plays an essential part in policy failures, including in Iraq and Afghanistan.

MOSCOW, August 19. /TASS/: Specialists have deciphered two flight recorders of an Il-112V military transport plane that crashed in the Moscow Region on August 17, law-enforcement agencies told TASS on Thursday.

"The flight data and voice recorders have been deciphered, the information is not subject to disclosure," the source said. 

A source told TASS on Wednesday that both black boxes were slightly burnt and damaged, but specialists managed to read the data in a special laboratory.

MOSCOW, August 19. /TASS/: Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) will unveil the mockups of the large amphibious assault ship Kaiman and the autonomous underwater drone Yunona at the Army-2021 international military-technical forum, the USC press office announced on Thursday.

"The USC will demonstrate for the first time on the demonstration center’s site the mockups of the Kaiman large amphibious assault ship based on Project 11711 and the Yunona autonomous unmanned submersible vehicle," the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, August 19. /TASS/: The visit of Foreign Minister of Libya’s Government of National Unity Najla Mangoush to Moscow indicates the intention of the Libyan government to build priority relations with Russia, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday at the opening of talks with his Libyan counterpart.

MOSCOW, August 19./TASS/: Russia is ready to provide civil planes to evacuate Afghan nationals who want to leave the country to any other state, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing on Thursday. 

MOSCOW, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Thursday told Russians to take part in a tactical voting campaign at next month's parliamentary elections to try to dent the ruling United Russia party's political dominance.

The campaign, which asks people to vote for specific candidates judged to have the best chance of defeating the United Russia candidate in any given area, is one of the last levers Navalny and his allies have after a crackdown this summer outlawed his movement as "extremist".