President Vladimir Putin

In an interview, the Russian opposition leader accuses President Vladimir Putin of ordering the attack with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. A Kremlin spokesperson calls the accusation groundless.

A spokeswoman says the Russian opposition leader's bank accounts were frozen and his Moscow apartment "seized" in connection with a libel suit while he was in a coma after poisoning by a nerve agent.

Alexander Lukashenko declared a landslide victory in Aug. 9 polls widely seen as fraudulent. He was sworn in for a sixth term Wednesday in a secret ceremony in the capital, according to state media.

In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, the president once again sought to blame China for the COVID-19 pandemic and called on Beijing to be punished for its handling of the disease.

It's the first country to approve a COVID-19 vaccine, but it has not finished Phase III trials to assess safety and effectiveness in the general population.

Russian military intelligence, the GRU, is linked to the invasion of Ukraine and interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Now it's suspected of a bounty program to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

The vote approves constitutional changes, including a reset on presidential terms that will allow Putin to run twice more after his current six-year term expires in 2024.

The president said he was never briefed on intelligence, first reported by The New York Times, showing Russia had offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill Western forces in Afghanistan.

A month ago, Vladimir Putin said the outbreak in Russia was "under control," but in a teleconference with health officials on Monday he acknowledged the situation was changing "not for the better."

Officials said Thursday that the country had nearly 1,500 new cases in a single day with 13 new deaths from COVID-19. The news came as the Kremlin extended a national "non-working week."