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Mr. Bout, 56, is standing in elections Sunday as a candidate for the regional assembly in Ulyanovsk, a territory of 1.3 million people about 450 miles east of Moscow that was Lenin’s birthplace.

The health department of Ulyanovsk region, where the first cases were reported, said 20 people had died there after drinking the cider, branded as "Mister Cider".

Zinaida Yevmenkova, 82, of Ulyanovsk, a city on the Volga River, did spend her last rubles — donating 300,000, or more than $4,000 — to buy a small quadcopter drone for the Russian military, the Giving Kindness charity reported.

"We won't be weakened, divided or exterminated," said Ulyanovsk governor Alexei Russkikh.

"According to preliminary data, the driver of a heavy goods vehicle drove into oncoming traffic and collided with a minibus," the Ulyanovsk region's interior ministry said in a statement.