Police in Russia's Far East broke up a long-running anti-Kremlin protest with force on Saturday, detaining 25 people according to local authorities, in response to what they called an illegal attempt to erect protest tents in a central square.
Russia's coronavirus cases rose by 12,846 on Saturday, a new daily record since the start of the outbreak early this year, pushing the overall total number of infections to 1,285,084.
Relations between Russia and the European Union are rapidly deteriorating, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday, responding to a question about possible EU sanctions against Moscow over the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
Authorities in Moscow were considering closing bars and nightclubs to halt a second coronavirus wave as the number of new daily cases surged on Friday to the highest it has been since the pandemic began.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have confirmed that their foreign ministers will come for talks to Moscow, the RIA news agency cited Russia's foreign ministry as saying on Friday.
Russia's environment watchdog, which is investigating unexplained toxic pollution off the country's far eastern coast, said on Thursday it had found significantly higher levels of pollutants in nearby rivers than in the affected waters themselves.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin spoke on Thursday by phone with his Azeri counterpart, Ali Asadov, Russian news agencies reported, citing the government.
The EU must stand up to Russia when it violates international norms, France and Germany's foreign ministers said on Thursday, adding that a decision to push sanctions over the poisoning of a Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny did not end dialogue.
Russian police detained two members of the Pussy Riot punk group on Thursday, activist Pyotr Verzilov said, a day after the group hung up rainbow flags on government buildings on President Vladimir Putin's birthday to promote gay rights.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that a rise in new coronavirus cases in Russia was a cause for serious concern and warned that numbers could rise even quicker unless people took heed of the situation and protected themselves.