“Two months have passed and less than two percent of the population has been vaccinated,” the president’s press service said he told ministers. “Delays are not an abstract problem, but a matter of national importance. We are talking here about national security, more illness and death rates, our citizens.”

Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are set to increase oil output gradually from May under a fresh OPEC+ deal, energy ministries of both oil-producing countries said.

The IMF and Ukraine agreed on a $5 billion standby programme last year and $2.1 billion was disbursed soon after, but the scheme has been on hold amid doubts on fundamental issues of state and legal practice. An extended mission ended in February without any agreement, with the Fund saying more progress was needed.

Pozner, who rose to fame in the United States as a unabashed apologist for the Kremlin due to his unusual status as a Soviet-American-French citizen, had arrived in the capital Tbilisi, ostensibly for a lavish feast for his 87th birthday. He was accompanied by an coterie of pro-Kremlin government reporters and swishy Russian pop culture figures.