Russia

MOSCOW, June 28 (Reuters) - Former Belarusian presidential contender Viktor Babariko told a court on Monday he was innocent of what his team says were fabricated corruption charges designed to stop him challenging veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko at the ballot box.

Before his arrest last June, opinion polls suggested Babariko, 57, was Lukashenko's main rival ahead of a presidential election which the opposition says was rigged last August to prolong Lukashenko's long rule.

MOSCOW, June 27. /TASS/: A Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket, scheduled to blast off on June 30, has been installed on the launch pad of the Baikonur spaceport, Russia’s Roscosmos space corporation said on Sunday.

"In accordance with the decision of the state commission, on June 27, 2021 the space rocket was delivered to the launch pad of site 31," the state corporation said in a statement.

MOSCOW, June 27. / TASS /: Russia’s weekly COVID-19 death toll surged by 3,921, an all-time high since the start of the pandemic, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Sunday.

The previous record high of 3,920 COVID-19 fatalities was registered in late December 2020.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus mortality rate remained practically unchanged. Over the past week, the figure climbed from 2.43% to 2.44%, according to TASS estimates.

MOSCOW, June 27. /TASS/: NATO countries’ steps have forced Ukraine to fully lose its sovereignty and set Ukrainians against each other and now they have decided to recall about legal restrictions for the accession to the alliance, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel on Sunday.

MOSCOW, June 26. /TASS/: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS on Saturday he would discuss visa issues and the efforts of normalizing the work of both countries’ diplomatic missions with US Ambassador John Sullivan who had returned to Moscow.

MOSCOW, June 26. /TASS/: The Moscow authorities believe that the Russian capital is living through the coronavirus pandemic anew due to a new strain, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 TV Channel on Saturday.

"The current situation suggests that we actually living through the coronavirus pandemic raging in Moscow anew," the Moscow head said.

Vaccination is the most effective method to halt the novel coronavirus infection’s spread in the Russian capital while other measures can solve the problem only for the time being, Sobyanin stressed.

MOSCOW, June 26. /TASS/: Confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia grew by 21,665 in the past day, registering the highest level since January 21 this year, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Saturday.

Overall, coronavirus infections totaled 5,430,753 in Russia. The coronavirus growth rate equaled 0.4% in the past day, the latest figures show.

Currently, 354,084 people continue their medical treatment from the novel coronavirus in Russia, the figures show.

Coronavirus recoveries in Russia increased by 14,347 in the past day to 4,943,98.

26 June 2021; MEMO: The Russian government on Friday ratified an agreement to establish a technical-logistical support point for the Russian fleet in Sudan.

On 1 June, the Sudanese Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Muhammad Othman Al-Hussein announced Khartoum's intention to renegotiate the agreement signed with Russia regarding the establishment of the logistics centre.

On 23 June, the Russian government handed a decree to President Vladimir Putin to sign.

MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/: Russia’s Sputnik Light single-component coronavirus vaccine has been registered in Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said on Friday.

"RDIF announces registration of the Russian Sputnik Light single-component vaccine against coronavirus by the Ministry of Healthcare of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan," the Fund says.

ST. PETERSBURG, June 25. /TASS/: The Russian Podsolnukh-E over-the-horizon radar station possesses unique properties compared to its foreign rivals and can simultaneously track over 300 surface and air targets on an area of about 150,000 sq. km, Podsolnukh-E Chief Designer at the Research Institute of Long-Range Radio Communications Mikhail Skolotnev told TASS on Friday.