Eleven people were killed in a fire that broke out overnight in a home for the elderly in the region of Bashkortostan in central Russia, investigators said Tuesday.

One of the developers of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine announced Friday that India-based drugmaker Hetero will produce over 100 million doses of the jab.

"Hetero, one of India's leading generic pharmaceutical companies, have agreed to produce in India over 100 million doses per year of the world's first registered vaccine against the novel coronavirus infection -– Sputnik V," the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said in a statement, adding that production was expected to start in early 2021.

Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine is 95 percent effective according to a second interim analysis of clinical trial data, its developers said on Tuesday.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called Saturday for greater military cooperation with Russia, a day after Azerbaijani troops began moving into territory in Nagorno-Karabakh previously held by Armenian separatist forces.

A Russian citizen who worked on naval ships was found guilty of high treason for passing on military secrets to the CIA, Russia's security services said Friday.

Russia's total coronavirus caseload surpassed two million on Thursday as officials registered record increases in new infections and virus-related deaths. 

Russia reported Tuesday a record high 442 new coronavirus-related deaths as the country's regions struggled to cope with overflowing morgues and medicine shortages.

Moscow on Tuesday vehemently rejected claims by Microsoft that Russia was behind cyber attacks on companies researching coronavirus vaccines and treatments, saying it was being made a scapegoat.

A Russian serviceman Monday hacked an officer to death with an axe and shot two fellow soldiers dead at a military base near the southern city of Voronezh, investigators said.

Russia's foreign minister called for collective efforts Tuesday to prevent a large-scale war in the Persian Gulf and got strong support from all Security Council members except the United States, which called Iran the major culprit and urged that it be held accountable for supporting terrorists and destabilizing the region.

Sergey Lavrov told a high-level virtual council meeting that a worst case scenario was avoided earlier this year following the U.S. killing of Iran's top general, Qassem Soleimani, and warned that "the situation remains fragile and could become dangerous and unpredictable again."