Russia

30 Mar 2021; MEMO: The Russian energy ministry has promoted the use of the Northern Sea route for international shipping as an alternative to Egypt's Suez Canal after a huge shipping container blocked the canal and disrupted international maritime trade for nearly a week, Russia's TASS news agency reported.

MOSCOW, March 29. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on the Army's spring draft that will run from April 1 to July 15 this year, according to the document posted on the website of the government’s legal information web portal on Monday.

"To draft 134,650 Russian citizens aged 18-27 for military service from April 1 to July 15 this year who are not in reserve and are subject to active duty," the document says.

MOSCOW, March 29. /TASS/: Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov, who is currently in Moscow for consultations on bilateral relations, told TASS on Monday he hopes to return to Washington in the near future.

"I hope to be back soon," he answered a corresponding question.

MOSCOW, March 29. /TASS/: Documents for registration of the Sputnik Light coronavirus vaccine lodged with the Russian Health Ministry, according to the website of the state register of medicines.

Alexei Kuznetsov, an aide to the Russian health minister, told journalists on Monday, the ministry had received the Sputnik Light dossier. "The ministry’s expert organization will soon examine the vaccine’s quality, safety and efficacy. A decision will be taken afterwards," he said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said he could be locked up in solitary confinement after being accused of numerous minor infractions, and posted the first picture on Monday of himself from prison, a grainy image showing his head had been shaven.

The fate of Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critics, is in focus after he said on Thursday that being woken up by a guard every hour during the night amounted to torture and that his appeal for treatment for acute back and leg pain had been ignored.

MOSCOW, March 28. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 vaccines are the best in terms of three key indicators, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Moscow. Kremlin. Putin on Rossiya-1 TV channel.

"Our vaccines, I can confidently say this, are the best in terms of all three key indicators," Putin said.

MOSCOW, March 28. /TASS/: Russia’s Embassy in Indonesia urged Russian citizens to refrain from visiting crowded places after a suicide bombing near a Catholic church in Indonesia’s Makassar city, the South Sulawesi province’s capital.

"Dear compatriots, in the wake of the terrorist attack near the Christian church in Makassar, we ask the Russian citizens on the [island] of Sulawesi (as well as everyone else) to remain calm, not to visit crowded places and to follow the police’s instructions," the Russian diplomatic mission stated on its Facebook page on Sunday.

MOSCOW, March 28. /TASS/: Russia confirmed 9,088 COVID-19 cases in the past day, bringing the total case tally to 4,519,832, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Sunday.

In relative terms, the growth rate stood at 0.2%.

The lowest growth rates were registered in the Nenets Autonomous Region (0%), the Tuva Republic and the Magadan Region (0.01%), and the Altai Republic (0.05%).

MOSCOW, March 28. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin expects that herd immunity against COVID-19 in Russia will be developed by the end of summer.

In an interview with Moscow. Kremlin. Putin program on Rossiya-1 TV channel, answering a question when the pandemic restrictions in Russia could be lifted and the country would return to a normal life, the president assured that "this will happen."

He recommended to "listen to specialists" who say that restrictions could be lifted "after herd immunity is developed."

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny asked for help from a public commission to get access to painkiller injections for severe pain in his leg, the head of the commission said in a statement, published on Saturday night.

Navalny was jailed last month for two and a half years on charges he called politically motivated. He was arrested as he returned to Russia from Germany in January, where he had been recovering from what doctors said was a nerve agent poisoning.