President Vladimir Putin has said that stay-at-home orders for most workers in Russia will be eased this week, despite a record increase in new Covid-19 infections.
With more than 220,000 confirmed cases and a steady surge of more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases every day, Russia now ranks fourth in a global tally of total infections after the United States, Spain and Britain.
Despite virus figures that suggest the pandemic in Russia shows no sign of slowing, Mr Putin announced that the country's "non-working" period to slow the pandemic would end on Tuesday.
The Kremlin introduced the measures in late March, saying Russians not working in essential jobs would have to stay at home but still receive their salaries as part of sweeping