Russia

MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/: Clashes during unsanctioned protests in Russia on January 23 were provoked solely by the aggression of the protesters, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

"The level of violence among the participants of these actions was rather unprecedented. They behaved extremely aggressively," the spokesman said, adding that the protesters provoked violence. He noted that in this sense, "it doesn’t seem strange" to him that criminal proceedings had been launched against protesters but not against law enforcement officers.

MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/: A third Russian vaccine against the coronavirus should enter civilian circulation within a month, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said at a session of the presidium of the state coordination council to control the coronavirus incidence in the Russian Federation on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/: The "palace" on Russia’s Black Sea coast in Gelendzhik, which was described as owned by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a recent "investigation", belongs to one or several businessmen, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Kremlin believes it is inappropriate to reveal the names of the building owners.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is being used by the West to try to destabilise Russia, a prominent hardliner and ally of President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, saying he must be held to account for repeatedly breaking the law.

Navalny was remanded in custody for 30 days last week after returning from Germany where he had been recovering from a nerve agent poisoning. He could face years in jail for parole violations and other legal cases he calls trumped up.

KALININGRAD, January 25. /TASS/: More than 3,000 military servicemen of the Baltic Fleet’s units are involved in the just-started large-scale routine combat training drills, the fleet’s press-service said on Monday.

MOSCOW, January 25. /TASS/: Russian state space corporation Roscosmos carries on the talks with China and other international partners on the creation of a joint Moon base, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said on his Telegram channel.

"We are holding talks with all international partners, first and foremost China, on establishing a Moon research base," he wrote.

Rogozin reminded that the Russian Moon research program is set to begin in 2021. "We plan to begin a piloted Moon program in 2028," he stressed.

MOSCOW, January 25. /TASS/: Side effects after vaccination against the novel coronavirus infection may indicate a stronger immunity to the disease, Prof. Nikolai Malyshev, a specialist in infectious diseases, said on Monday.

"It is believed that if a person develops any symptoms after vaccination, immunity to the disease, as a rule, will be stronger," he told a news conference.

He also noted that those who have had COVID-19 should get vaccinated not earlier than six to nine months after recovery.

ZAVIDOVO /Tver Region/, January 25. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the purported palace that he allegedly owns in Gelendzhik according to a certain "investigation" doesn’t belong to him or his close relatives.

"I haven’t seen this film simply due to lack of free time to look into such information, but I looked through selected video clips that my aides brought me," he said at an online meeting with university students. "Nothing of what is listed there as my property belongs or has ever belonged to me or my close relatives. Never!"

MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/: Russia expects that Moscow and Washington will manage to establish dialogue, and if the new US administration is ready for this, Russian President Vladimir Putin will certainly take a reciprocal step, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.

"The thing is that the Russian Federation has been consistently and traditionally calling for kind relations [with the US]," Peskov said in an interview with "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" program on Rossiya-1 TV channel.

MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/: The Russian delegation managed to remove the issue of human rights in Crimea from the agenda of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Bureau’s meeting, the delegation’s Head, Deputy Speaker of the State Duma (lower house) Pyotr Tolstoy wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday.