Russia

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/: Russia is ready to discuss the certification of citizens vaccinated against COVID-19 with India, and an agreement can be reached in this sphere, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday during a press conference after talks with his Indian colleague Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

"We are ready to discuss the possibilities of coordinating our actions related to vaccinated citizens, regarding the certification of those who were vaccinated. I think that we can reach an agreement here, and it will serve as an example to other states," he said.

SEVASTOPOL, July 9. /TASS/: The combat teams of Pantsyr-S1 anti-aircraft missile/gun systems of Russia’s Southern Military District held drills in Crimea to hunt and eliminate enemy drones that attempted to attack S-400 air defense launchers, the Black Sea Fleet’s press office reported on Friday.

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/: Russia’s coronavirus reproduction rate went up to 1.01 on Friday according to TASS estimates based on the anti-coronavirus crisis center’s latest data. In Moscow, this figure rose to 0.83.

The reproduction rate is greater than 1 in eight out of ten regions with the highest COVID case count. Only in Moscow (0.83) and the Moscow Region (0.98), it is lower than 1.

In St. Petersburg, where the amount of daily COVID-19 cases is nearing 2,000, the rate is 1.09. In the Voronezh Region, the Irkutsk and Rostov Regions, it is about 1.11.

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/: Moscow is determined to continue fostering the potential of its Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation with Beijing by boosting ties in a wide range of areas, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Friday.

She pointed out that July 16 would mark 20 years since the treaty was signed, thereby "establishing the legal basis for the present-day model of Russia-China relations, comprehensive partnership, strategic interaction and practical cooperation."

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/: Rescue teams discovered body fragments of all 28 people killed in the An-26 plane crash in Kamchatka, a source in the emergency services told TASS Friday.

"The rescuers were able to reach a remote point on the rock, where the An-26 plane fell. Body parts of all victims were discovered there. One person was identified by a tattoo," the source said, adding that all bodies will undergo a DNA examination. 

MOSCOW, July 8 (Reuters) - Thirty-two percent of Russians support the extremism ban on jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's political network while 27% oppose it, according to an opinion poll by the Moscow-based Levada Centre published on Friday.

Levada, which polled 1,630 people on June 24-30, said 38% had voiced indifference over last month's ruling that designated Navalny's groups as "extremist". It also said that support for Navalny's activities had dipped to 14% from 20% last September.

MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/: A Be-200 amphibious plane of Russia’s naval aviation has departed for Turkey to help fight wildfires, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Thursday.

"On the instruction of the president of the Russian Federation, Russian Defense Minister Army General Sergey Shoigu has sent a Be-200 amphibious plane of the Russian Navy’s naval aviation to help the Turkish Republic extinguish fires," the ministry said in a statement.

VLADIVOSTOK, July 8. /TASS/: Moscow has responded harshly to Japan’s nervous reaction to Russia’s development of the southern Kuril Islands, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at Far Eastern Federal University on Thursday.

MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/: A piece of space junk flew at a distance of 1.8 km from the International Space Station (ISS), Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos announced on Thursday.—

"According to the data of Russian specialists, an uncatalogued piece of space debris flew at a distance of 1.8 km from the International Space Station at around 4:15 p.m. Moscow time," the statement says.

MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/: The French Foreign Ministry’s call not to recognize Russian and Chinese vaccines in the EU is unacceptable, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.

"Such remarks are unacceptable. This is a hybrid of racism, imperial hegemonism and neo-Nazism: entire peoples are denied equal rights and opportunities, and this is being done in violation of laws, ethics and morals, pushing the world towards confrontation at a moment when it endures the most difficult trials by the pandemic," she said in her Telegram channel Thursday.