Russia

(Reuters) --- Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been returned to the original correctional facility where he had been serving out a sentence after he recovered from a hunger strike at a hospital in a different prison, the TASS news agency reported on Monday.

The 45-year-old opposition politician had declared a hunger strike in late March to demand better medical care in prison after experiencing acute leg and back pain. He halted his hunger strike in April after receiving medical attention.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a bill to withdraw from an international treaty allowing surveillance flights over military facilities, following the U.S. exit from the pact.

The bill was endorsed by Russian lawmakers after U.S. officials told Moscow last month that President Joe Biden’s administration had decided not to reenter the Open Skies Treaty that the U.S. left under President Donald Trump.

MOSCOW, June 6. /TASS/: Iranian Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Ali Asghar Mounesan is arriving in Moscow on Sunday to sign a deal on lifting individual visa requirements for tourist groups, Iran’s Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday.

"Today, Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Ali Asghar Mounesan is arriving in Moscow to sign an agreement on lifting visa requirements for tourist groups," the ambassador wrote.

MOSCOW, June 6. /TASS: Effective Russian-Belarusian cooperation is not part of NATO’s plans, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel, commenting on a statement of NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who voiced concerns over cooperation between Moscow and Minsk.

MOSCOW, June 6. / TASS /: Russia's COVID-19 weekly cases reached a record high since mid-March, according to TASS estimates based on the anti-coronavirus crisis center’s data.

TASS has collected key statistics on the pandemic for this week.

Spread rate

From May 31 to June 6, the crisis center reported 62,995 COVID-19 cases versus 61,937 in the previous seven days (a 1.7% increase). The last record high was registered more than two months ago - from March 15 to 21.

MOSCOW, June 6. /TASS/: Russia and Nord Stream 2’s operator are ready for problems, which the West could create for the pipeline’s work, Russian Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov told Rossiya-1 TV channel on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

"I think that we and the company-operator - this is an international company registered in Switzerland, by the way - are ready for this," Chizhov said, commenting on possible problems during Nord Stream 2’s operation.

ST. PETERSBURG, June 5. /TASS/: Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) plans to deliver over 30 SSJ100 (Sukhoi Superjet 100) passenger jets in 2021, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said in an interview with TASS on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

"About 200 aircraft of this brand are already flying and this year’s plans include the delivery of about 33 Superjet aircraft to our airlines," he noted.

Borisov added that part of the deliveries would fall to Aurora, a Russian Far East air carrier.

ST. PETERSBURG, June 4. /TASS/: The global economy may see the highest growth rates in decades following a decline caused by the coronavirus pandemic, while Russia’s economy is already approaching pre-crisis levels, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, addressing the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Friday.

MOSCOW, June 5. /TASS/: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia increased by 9,145 per day to 5,117,274, the federal operational headquarters for the fight against coronavirus told reporters on Saturday

In relative terms, the increase in the number of cases was 0.18%.

The lowest growth rates were recorded per day in the Nenets Autonomous District and Chukotka Autonomous District (0% each), in the Republic of Tyva (0.03%), in the Jewish Autonomous Region (0.04%).

ST. PETERSBURG, June 5. /TASS/: Russia’s government has spent a total of four trillion rubles ($54.9 billion) to shore up the country’s economy during the pandemic, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Saturday.