Russia

MOSCOW, May 22. /TASS/: Russia confirmed 8,709 COVID-19 cases over the past day, bringing the total caseload to 4,992,554, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Saturday.

The number of cases grew 0.17% in relative terms. The lowest daily growth rates were seen in the Jewish Autonomous Region (0.02%), the Republic of Tuva (0.04%), the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, the Kamchatka Region, the Magadan Region and the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (0.05% each).

MOSCOW, May 22./TASS/: Joint projects of Russia and the European Union were blocked because of anti-Russian sanctions and aggressive rhetoric from Brussels, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova blogged on Facebook on Saturday in comments on allegations from the Austrian foreign minister that Moscow showed no interest in dialogue with the EU.

ROSTOV-ON-DON, May 21. /TASS/: A joint group of Russian and Kazakh combat ships held artillery firings against the targets that simulated a notional enemy’s warships during naval drills in the Caspian Sea, the press office of Russia’s Southern Military District reported on Friday.

The maneuvers kicked off on May 18 and will last through May 24 at the Russian and Kazakh naval training ranges located in the middle part of the Caspian Sea, the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, May 21. /TASS/: "Soft power" is an area that Russia has yet to work on, but the country has no problems with real power, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the New Knowledge educational marathon on Friday.

"’Soft power’ is something we still have to work on <...>. As far as our real power is concerned, everything is fine on this score," he said.

"Yet, this armored train [of real power], as is well-known, has been laid up on the storage track and may God forbid it from being pulled out of there," the spokesman added.

MOSCOW, May 21. / TASS /: Since the beginning of this year, the Russian Financial Monitoring Agency has thwarted a number of attempts to bankroll terrorist activities and froze funds to the tune of over 20 mln rubles ($271,000), said the head of the agency Yuri Chikhanchin during a conference organized by the Association of Russian Banks on Friday.

MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/: The Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology is developing a drug which resolves the issue of the antibiotic resistance, Phase Three trials are beginning, Director of the Center Alexander Gintsburg said.

21 May 2021; MEMO: President Vladimir Putin yesterday ordered the voluntary evacuation of Russian citizens from the occupied Gaza Strip.

According to RT, Putin instructed the Russian Foreign Ministry to envisage a "possible" evacuation of any citizens or personnel trapped by the Israeli military offensive against Gaza.

MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/: The European Robotic Arm (ERA) has been installed on Russia’s Nauka (Science) multifunctional laboratory module, which will travel to the International Space Station in July, the State Space Corporation Roscosmos announced on Thursday.

MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/: The state of Russian-speaking residents in Estonia continues to decline sharply according to the information in a report by the Baltic state’s Ministry of Culture on the outcome of monitoring integration policy, which was cited in a commentary by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova made public Thursday.

MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/: Russia confirmed 9,232 COVID-19 cases over the past day, bringing the total caseload to 4,974,908, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Thursday.

The number of cases grew 0.19% in relative terms. The lowest growth rates were recorded over the past day in the Nenets Autonomous Region (0%), the Tuva Republic (0.03%) and the Jewish Autonomous Region (0.04%).