No decisions on reopening Russian border as of yet, negotiations underway - Kremlin

MOSCOW, July 3./TASS/. Russia is discussing with certain countries reopening of its borders closed amid the coronavirus pandemic, but no concrete decisions have been made as of now, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. "This is a question to the response center of the government. Contacts continue with certain states, but no concrete decisions have been made as of yet," Peskov said. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Russia was scaling down international flights from February 1, while on March 27 all flights abroad were stopped with the exception of repatriation, cargo and post flights. The government also issued instructions to restrict from March 30 travel across the automobile, railway, pedestrian and other border-crossing points. In reply to the question about difficulties with getting across the border foreign nationals, emerging on Russia’s border with its neighbors, for example Kazakhstan, Peskov said "Everything that Russia can do in terms of coordinating its activity with the colleagues in respective countries is being done, but the situation is difficult sometimes, we are all well aware of this". On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 10.8 million people have been infected worldwide and about 520,000 deaths have been reported. To date, 667,883 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 437,893 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 9,859 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation. Read more