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MOSCOW — Moscow's mayor on Tuesday ordered the city's first coronavirus restrictions since the summer, as Russia registered 1,015 daily COVID deaths, a new record.

At the national level, the government is considering keeping people off work for a week to reduce social contact in a bid to lower the tide of infections.

President Vladimir Putin is expected to decide on Wednesday which government measures put to him should be implemented to curb the spread of the virus across the country.

But already on Tuesday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin ordered unvaccinated over-60s in the capital to work from home and extended mandatory vaccinations for service workers. Those restrictions take effect next Monday and are set to last until the end of February.

Sobyanin also told employers to move 30 per cent of their staff to home working.

"With every day the number of people hospitalised with the severe form of the disease is growing," Sobyanin said in a statement.

The number of patients in a serious condition had "doubled" since the end of the summer, he added.

The measures were announced after Russia on Tuesday registered a new 24-hour high of 1,015 coronavirus deaths, bringing the country's official total to 225,325, the highest in Europe.

But figures published by statistics agency Rosstat in October suggested that more than 400,000 people had died in the country from the coronavirus.

'Difficult solutions' 

Only 35 per cent of Russians are vaccinated, and authorities are struggling to counter anti-vaccine sentiment. Independent polls show that more than half of Russians do not plan to get a shot, despite appeals from Putin.

Sobyanin said the authorities had hoped older Muscovites would vaccinate themselves after returning from the countryside at the end of the summer.

“Unfortunately, this did not happen,” his statement said.

The surge in cases has come without any strict restrictions in place to limit COVID-19’s spread, although several regions have reintroduced QR codes for access to public places.

Russian officials have been accused of downplaying the severity of the pandemic.

Earlier on Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova called for the introduction of a non-working week starting from October 30 to curb the spread of the virus.

She proposed that the hardest-hit regions introduce such a measure from this Saturday.

“The solutions we are proposing are very difficult,” Golikova told Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

“But we ask you to support these proposals and appeal to the head of state.”

Golikova is due to submit her proposal to Putin for approval during a meeting on Wednesday.

Russia has struggled to innoculate its citizens despite domestic vaccines including Sputnik being widely available.

Putin insists that Russia has handled the pandemic better than most countries, but even top officials have recently voiced concern.

Pyotr Tolstoy, deputy chairman of the lower house, said at the weekend that the authorities had “completely lost” an information campaign on coronavirus.

“There is no trust in people to go and vaccinate themselves, it is a fact,” he said.

Putin’s spokesman on Tuesday urged Russians to be “more responsible” and admitted that the government could have done more to explain the “lack of alternative to vaccines”.

“There is a tradition to blame everything on the state,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“But at the same time, we need a more responsible position from citizens of our country.”

Western vaccines are not available in Russia, and Peskov insisted that bringing them into the country would not help the sluggish vaccination rates.

“The vaccinophobia of some citizens is not linked to the brand of vaccines,” he said.

On Monday, the second city of Saint Petersburg announced it would tighten restrictions to battle the virus, introducing a health pass to regulate access to crowd events from November 1.

LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday led tributes to veteran Conservative MP David Amess, who was stabbed to death while meeting constituents, as police probed whether a suspect arrested was motivated by Islamist extremism.

The attack was the second killing of a UK politician in five years and has stoked fears for the safety of elected representatives, as well as calls for an end to divisive partisan rhetoric that has increased since the 2016 Brexit referendum.

"We will cherish his memory. We will celebrate his legacy," Johnson told parliament, after MPs, many dressed in black, packed the House of Commons and stood heads bowed in a minute's silence.

"And we will never allow those who commit acts of evil to triumph over the democracy and the parliament that to Sir David Amess, meant so much," he added.

Amess, who was killed in a church hall on Friday, was one of Britain's longest-serving and most respected MPs. He campaigned on a range of causes, including obtaining city status for the town of Southend, which he represented.

Queen Elizabeth II has now formally granted the request, Johnson said to cheers.

Earlier, Amess' widow Julia and other members of his family visited the scene of the attack in Leigh-on-Sea, near Southend, wiping away tears as she reviewed a sea of floral tributes.

On Sunday, his family said they were "absolutely broken" by his death and made a plea for tolerance.

"Set aside hatred and work towards togetherness. Whatever one's race, religious or political beliefs, be tolerant and try to understand," they added.

'Stop dehumanising opponents' 

Several MPs have spoken out about the dangers they have faced from the public, including Labour's Chris Bryant who said he notified police after receiving a death threat on Saturday.

Former foreign secretary Dominic Raab said he had had at least three threats to "life and limb" in the past two years, including a warning he would have acid thrown at him.

Bryant attributed the rise in abuse to Brexit and anti-vaccine protests, while the widower of Labour MP Jo Cox, killed by a far-right extremist in 2016, said the “celebration of political segregation” needed to stop.

Last month, Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner triggered a storm of protest after describing Conservatives as “scum”.

“We have to stop dehumanising our opponents,” Brendan Cox told Times Radio.

Police have until Friday to detain and question a 25-year-old man, who was arrested at the scene of the stabbing.

Detectives have declared the killing a terrorist incident and said they were investigating “a potential motivation linked to Islamist extremism”.

Counter-terror officers from London’s Metropolitan police are leading the probe. In their last update late Saturday the force said they were searching three addresses in the capital.

British media, citing unnamed official sources, have identified the suspect as Ali Harbi Ali, a British national of Somali descent.

On Sunday, officers stood guard outside a three-storey house in a quiet street in the north London district of Kentish Town, where his family is believed to live.

Search for motive 

Before the attack, the suspect had been referred to Prevent, the official counterterrorist scheme for those thought to be at risk of radicalisation, according to reports.

His father is a former prime ministerial adviser in Somalia, his uncle is the East African country’s ambassador to China, while his aunt runs a security think tank in the war-ravaged capital Mogadishu, the reports added.

The Times said on Monday that police were examining the close ties between Amess and Qatar, given the MP was chairman of a parliamentary group on the Gulf state and returned from his latest visit there earlier this month.

However, other newspapers reported Amess was not specifically targeted but picked randomly as part of a plot to kill any national politician after the suspect was allegedly self-radicalised at home during pandemic lockdowns.

Patel has ordered a review of security measures for parliamentarians and vowed “to close any gaps” in security provision.

Police and parliamentary authorities were implementing “immediate changes and measures that are actively being put in place, and discussed with MPs”, she said on Sunday.

MOSCOW — Russia said on Monday it was suspending its mission to NATO and closing the alliance's offices in Moscow, as relations with the Western military bloc plunged to new depths.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced the moves after NATO expelled several members of Moscow's delegation to the alliance for alleged spying.

"Following certain measures taken by NATO, the basic conditions for common work no longer exist," Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.

He said Moscow was suspending the work of its official mission to NATO in Brussels, including its military representative, from around November 1.

Russia was also shutting down the alliance's liaison mission in the Belgian embassy in Moscow, set up in 2002, and the NATO information office set up in 2001 to improve understanding between NATO and Russia.

"NATO has already greatly reduced its contacts with our mission," Lavrov said, adding that the alliance is "not interested in dialogue and work as equals".

"We see no reason to pretend that any change is possible in the foreseeable future."

Lavrov said that in case of urgent matters NATO could liaise via the Russian ambassador in Belgium.

NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said the alliance had noted Lavrov’s comments but had not received “official communication on the issues he raised”.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas described the announcement as “more than regrettable” and said it would prolong “icy relations” between Russia and NATO.

“We are ready for dialogue, but must realise that this is no longer the case with Moscow,” Maas told journalists in Luxembourg.

‘Malign activities’ 

The moves cut off years of efforts to improve ties between Russia and NATO that followed the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

They come after NATO earlier this month stripped eight members of Russia’s mission to the alliance of their accreditation, with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg calling them “undeclared Russian intelligence officers”.

“We have seen an increase in Russian malign activities, at least in Europe and therefore we need to act,” Stoltenberg said at the time, describing the relationship between NATO and Russia as “at its lowest point since the end of the Cold War”.

Russia had an observer mission to NATO as part of a two-decade-old NATO-Russia Council meant to promote cooperation in common security areas.

The Russian mission has been downsized before, when seven of its members were ejected after the 2018 Novichok poisoning of a Russian former double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter in Britain.

Meetings of a NATO-Russia council have not been held since 2019 against the backdrop of the heightened tensions.

Russia’s relationship with the West has been on a downward spiral since Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and support for pro-Russian separatists in the country’s east.

Western nations have imposed a series of sanctions in recent years over Ukraine, alleged election interference, cyberattacks and the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

Moscow in turn has accused the West of interfering in its elections and of supporting anti-Kremlin forces in countries like Ukraine and Georgia that Russia considers part of its traditional sphere of influence.

Lavrov’s announcements came after US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin landed in Georgian capital Tbilisi on the first leg of a visit to three allies on the Black Sea — Georgia, Ukraine and Romania — aiming to deliver a message of support against threats from Russia.

NATO defence ministers, including Austin, will be in Brussels on Thursday and Friday for a series of meetings.

LEIGH-ON-SEA, United Kingdom — The attacker who fatally stabbed British lawmaker David Amess was referred to an official counter-terrorist scheme for those thought to be at risk of radicalisation, according to media reports.

Police said late Saturday that detectives had until Friday, October 22, to question the suspect after he was detained under the Terrorism Act, which allowed them to extend his detention.

Veteran Conservative MP David Amess, 69, was talking with voters at a church in the small town of Leigh-on-Sea east of London when he was stabbed to death on Friday.

Police have said they are investigating "a potential motivation linked to Islamist extremism". The investigation is being led by Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command.

The BBC said it had received confirmation from Whitehall officials that the man's name is Ali Harbi Ali.

Ali, a British citizen of Somali heritage, had been referred to Prevent, the UK's scheme for those thought at risk of radicalisation a few years ago, the BBC reported.

Ali is believed not have spent long on the programme, which is voluntary, and was never formally a "subject of interest" to MI5, the domestic security agency, said the BBC.

Police and security services believe the attacker acted alone and was "self-radicalised", The Sunday Times reported, while he may have been inspired by Al Shabaab, Al Qaeda-linked Islamists in Somalia.

Ali's father Harbi Ali Kullane, a former adviser to the prime minister of Somalia, confirmed to The Sunday Times that his son was in custody, adding: "I'm feeling very traumatised."

Police said they have been carrying out searches at three addresses in the London area in a "fast-paced investigation".

The Sun tabloid reported that the attacker stabbed Amess multiple times in the presence of two women staff, before sitting down and waiting for police to arrive.

The Daily Mail newspaper reported that he had booked an appointment a week ahead.

Candle-lit vigil 

On Saturday evening, hundreds of mourners attended a candle-lit vigil at a sports field near the scene of the crime, holding a minute’s silence in the MP’s memory.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier visited the crime scene to pay his respects on Saturday, laying floral wreaths outside the church with the leader of the opposition, Labour leader Keir Starmer in a rare show of unity.

Residents, including members of the Muslim community, also heaped bouquets next to the police tape.

Britain’s politicians were stunned by the highly public attack, which recalled the murder of a pro-EU lawmaker ahead of the Brexit referendum.

In June 2016, Labour MP Jo Cox was killed by a far-right extremist, prompting demands for action against what lawmakers said was “a rising tide” of public abuse and threats against elected representatives.

Home Secretary Priti Patel on Friday ordered polic to review security arrangements for all 650 MPs and The Sunday Times reported that every MP could be granted security protection when meeting the public.

‘Cannot be cowed’ 

“We will carry on... We live in an open society, a democracy. We cannot be cowed by any individual,” Patel told journalists after laying a wreath for her fellow Essex MP.

Tobias Ellwood, a Conservative MP who tried to save a stabbed police officer during a 2017 terror attack near the Houses of Parliament, on Twitter urged a temporary pause in surgeries, or face-to-face meetings with constituents, until the security review is complete.

House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle in The Observer wrote that “we need to take stock” and review whether security measures introduced after Cox’s murder are “adequate to safeguard members, staff and constituents, especially during surgeries”.

Increasing threats 

MPs and their staff have been attacked before, although it is rare.

But their safety was thrown into sharp focus by Brexit, which stoked deep political divisions and has led to outburts of angry, partisan rhetoric.

Cox’s killer repeatedly shouted “Britain first” before shooting and stabbing the 41-year-old MP outside her constituency meeting near Leeds, northern England.

A specialist police unit set up to investigate threats against MPs in the aftermath of Cox’s murder said 678 crimes against lawmakers were reported between 2016 and 2020.

Amess, a Brexit backer, had written about public harassment and online abuse in his book “Ayes & Ears: A Survivor’s Guide to Westminster”, published last year.

“These increasing attacks have rather spoilt the great British tradition of the people openly meeting their elected politicians,” he said.

MPs have had to install security cameras and only meet constituents by appointment, he added.

Unlike some MPs, Amess publicised meeting times for constituents on Twitter and held them in public places, while asking people to book ahead.

BUDAPEST — A conservative provincial mayor and a leftist MEP faced off in Hungary on Sunday after a month-long opposition primary, with the winner set to challenge Prime Minister Viktor Orban in next year’s election.

The opposition agreed for the first time to choose just one contender to oppose Orban — as well as single candidates in each constituency to go up against his nationalist Fidesz Party — in the vote due next April.

After a first round of primaries that saw more than 600,000 people take part, Klara Dobrev of the leftist Democratic Coalition (DK) Party and economist Peter Marki-Zay were the final candidates battling it out.

Marki-Zay, 49, came third in the first round but persuaded the runner-up — liberal Budapest mayor Gergely Karacsony, who had been the pre-election favourite — to withdraw and endorse him in the run-off

A father of seven and a practising Catholic, Marki-Zay argued during the campaign that only he can appeal to both leftist voters and conservatives tired of the divisive Orban.

Marki-Zay, an economist and engineer who lived in the US and Canada for five years, grabbed national attention in 2018 when he won the mayoralty in the small city of Hodmezovasarhely.

Although the southern city had been a Fidesz stronghold for decades, Marki-Zay rallied cross-party support in what he called the blueprint for opposition success nationwide.

Despite having no party machinery or significant funding to rely on, the 49-year-old was also boosted during the primary race by support from younger voters open to his anti-elite and anti-corruption messages.

Dobrev, a vice president of the European Parliament since 2019 and vying to become Hungary’s first woman prime minister, emphasised her greater experience and accused her rival of “unsuitability” for the top job.

Polls indicated the mother-of-three’s weakness is her husband, former prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, who admitted lying in 2006 during a leaked private speech and has been relentlessly attacked by Orban ever since.

With the backing of DK, Hungary’s largest opposition party headed by Gyurcsany, Dobrev won the primary’s first round but fell short of an outright majority that would have won her the candidacy without a run-off.

The primary elections were designed by a six-party opposition alliance formed last year in an effort to combat an election system that favours Orban and Fidesz.

The primaries were called an “amazing success” by organisers, mobilising over 800,000 voters over the two rounds, almost 10 per cent of the electorate in the 9.8 million population EU member.

“That’s a lot of people even compared to countries with a long tradition of primaries, unlike Hungary where this has never happened before,” Marta V. Naszaly, a Budapest district mayor who volunteered to count votes, told AFP Sunday.

MOSCOW — Russia on Saturday topped 1,000 deaths over 24 hours for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, with the country's jab drive at a standstill and few restrictions in place.

An official government tally showed 1,002 deaths and 33,208 new infections, setting a high for both fatalities and cases for the third day in a row.

The surging outbreak has come with just 31 per cent of Russians fully inoculated as of Saturday, according to the Gogov website, which tallies COVID-19 data from the regions.

A lack of tough restrictions has allowed the virus to spread unchecked, though a number of regions have reintroduced QR codes for access to public places.

The Kremlin has avoided reintroducing major restrictions despite calling the country’s vaccination rate “unacceptably” low, saying this week authorities have to ensure “the economy continues working”.

It also said that Russia’s medical system is prepared to take in the rising number of patients, describing it as not “overwhelmed”.

Authorities have blamed Russians for the growing outbreak.

Health Minister Mikhail Murashko this week pointed to their “behaviour”, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said everything had been done to give the public the chance to “save their lives by getting vaccinated”.

While several Russian-developed jabs have been available for months, authorities have struggled to inoculate a vaccine-sceptic population.

Independent polls show that more than half of Russians do not plan to get a shot.

Russia’s fatalities from COVID now stand at 222,315, the highest toll in Europe, even as authorities are accused of downplaying the severity of Russia’s outbreak.

Under a broader definition of deaths linked to the virus, the Rosstat statistics agency has said that by the end of August more than 400,000 people in Russia had died with the coronavirus.