Russia

MOSCOW, April 10. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet received the second shot of the coronavirus vaccine, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov told TASS on Saturday.

"Not yet," he said when asked whether the president had received the second shot. He did not say however when Putin would be inoculated with the second component of the vaccine.

MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin said Friday it fears a resumption of full-scale fighting in eastern Ukraine and could take steps to protect Russian civilians there, a stark warning that comes amid a Russian troop build-up along the border.

The statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, reflected the Kremlin’s determination to prevent Ukraine from using force to try to retake control over separatist-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine.

SEVASTOPOL, April 9. /TASS/: The small missile ships Graivoron and Vyshny Volochyok held artillery firings against a surface target in the Black Sea, the Black Sea Fleet’s press office reported on Friday.

"In the course of the exercise, the corvettes’ crews received a command to employ weapons against an adversary ship. Under the drills’ scenario, a notional enemy’s ship made an attempt to lay minefields along the route of the Black Sea Fleet ships’ passage," the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, April 9. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has branded the latest proposal by the Ukrainian authorities to hold the Contact Group’s meetings on the Donbass conflict in another city instead of Minsk as "hypothetical stupidity."

"This is the same hypothetical stupidity that we hear from Kiev’s representatives in different areas over and over again," she told reporters at a press briefing on Friday. "This is about the same as the statement by the Ukrainian president’s press secretary about a certain Ukrainian Russian language."

MOSCOW, April 9. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin is concerned about provocative actions on the part of Kiev, as he conveyed to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a phone conversation on Friday.

According to the Kremlin press service, Putin at Erdogan’s request "outlined Russian approaches to the resolution of the internal Ukrainian crisis." It was "emphasized that the 2015 Minsk Package of Measures is the only possible foundation for the settlement."

MOSCOW, April 9. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has cautioned the United States not to contrive any illegitimate obstacles hindering the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

"It would be a good idea for the US to set an example by complying with the relevant norms of international law and eventually stop putting up illegal hurdles to the implementation of the Nord Stream 2 project," she told a briefing on Friday.

ANKARA/MOSCOW (Reuters) - The United States will send two warships to the Black Sea next week, Turkey said on Friday as Russia, which has beefed up its military forces near Ukraine, accused non-coastal NATO powers of increasing naval activity in the region.

Washington says Russia has amassed more troops on Ukraine’s eastern border than at any time since 2014, when it annexed Crimea from Ukraine and backed pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Donbass region of Ukraine.

MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/: The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has asked the Slovak government to return the batch of Sputnik V vaccine due to numerous contract violations so that it can be used in other countries, RDIF said in a statement published in the official Twitter account of the vaccine.

MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/: The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) recommended that Russian users switch to domestic alternatives to Zoom video communication app, the press service of the regulator told TASS on Thursday.

MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/: Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) demanded that Facebook, Twitter, and Google provide information on the localization of databases of Russian users in Russia. In the absence of a response, they will be held accountable, the service told TASS on Thursday.