Russia

Russia's embassy in Kabul said on Monday it was laying on extra evacuation flights from Afghanistan, while Russian troops carried out military drills close to the Afghan border amid heightened regional security risks.

Around 500 Russian motorised infantry troops are carrying out drills in the mountains of Tajikistan against the backdrop of instability in neighbouring Afghanistan, Russia's defence ministry was quoted as saying on Monday.

Russian anti-aircraft missile troops have arrived in Belarus with a mission of establishing a training centre in the city of Grodno near the border with Poland and Lithuania, the Belarus Defence Ministry said on Saturday.

Moscow will work more closely with fellow members of a post-Soviet security alliance as the withdraw of U.S. forces from Afghanistan raises regional security risks, Russia's defence minister was quoted as saying on Saturday.

Russia's deputy prime minister Tatiana Golikova said on Friday that more than 37 million people in the country had received both shots of a vaccine against COVID-19, Interfax news agency reported.

Russia saw the highest monthly coronavirus death toll of the pandemic in July, with 50,421 people dying from COVID-19 or related causes during the month, state statistic service Rosstat said on Friday.

Several Russian media outlets published joint appeals on Friday telling President Vladimir Putin to call off a crackdown on "foreign agent" media that they said is destroying independent journalism.

Russia called on Friday for rapid efforts to help form an inclusive interim government in Afghanistan after a deadly attack at Kabul airport, saying Islamic State was trying to capitalise on chaos in the country and endangering everyone.

The Italian government expects its last evacuation flight to leave Afghanistan later on Friday, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio told reporters.