Russia will close its border with Iran in an attempt to stem the spread of the coronavirus, its Cabinet of Ministers announced Friday amid a troubling spike in the number of cases and deaths within the Islamic Republic and a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin blasted as "fake" reports of the virus circulating in his country.

The temporary border closure will begin on March 7, according to state news outlet Tass. The announcement did not include any other details as of Friday afternoon. Russia similarly closed crossings along its border with China last month as the virus spread there.

However, it comes as Iran struggles to mitigate the fallout from the spread of the virus, which causes a disease known as COVID-19. Its state news service announced Friday that 17 people had died from the virus, including an influential former adviser to Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, raising the total death toll there to 124. Prior reports indicated as many as 10 percent of Iran's parliament has become infected with the disease.

More than 4,700 Iranians have confirmed cases of the disease as of Friday, days after Tehran activated its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as well as a volunteer militia known as the Basij to distribute medical supplies and limit travel to and from areas with high numbers of infected people.

Friday's announcement in Russia comes a day after a senior State Department official accused online actors affiliated with Moscow of proliferating a "swarm of online" disinformation regarding the coronavirus. The disinformation appears to further Russian interests of undermining Westerners' faith in their government and civil institutions, Lea Gabrielle, the coordinator of the government's Global Engagement Center, told a congressional committee on Thursday. Conspiracy theories include claims that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation created the virus.

Compared to other countries fighting the spread of the virus – particularly China, South Korea and Italy – the Russian government has been relatively quiet about the spread of the virus within its borders and its plans to tame the epidemic. Putin on Thursday blasted what he considered false rumors that the coronavirus is running rampant across Russia in an attempt "to spread panic among the public."