Verses in Russian [reledpar] with astanza produces strange characters

Question

I have both verse and prose in my Russian-English bilingual book (I use reledpar/reledmac). Russian side has weird characters before the verse when I trying to set it up with astanza: "before@pstartR@2". Moreover, the first character (Ч) in the verse disappears after the compilation - but all of this happens only for Russian (left) side. How can it be fixed?

\documentclass[draft]{book}
%% Additional note from LLT: you don't need fontspec or xelatex for reledmac or reledpar to work. However, if your document _does_ involve different languages with different scripts/fonts (e.g. English and Greek or Arabic etc), then it's a good idea to use those packages -- see https://www.overleaf.com/read/wfdxqhcyyjxz for an example
%
\usepackage[T2A, T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english,russian, french]{babel}
\usepackage{lscape}
\usepackage[a4paper, landscape, left=1in, right=1in, bottom=1.5in, top=1in]{geometry} %, showframe]
\usepackage[series={},nocritical,noend,noeledsec,nofamiliar,noledgroup]{reledmac}

\usepackage{reledpar}
\usepackage{epigraph}

\setlength\epigraphwidth{.3\textwidth}
\setlength\epigraphrule{0pt}

\usepackage{comment}        

\usepackage[parfill]{parskip}
\setlength{\parskip}{1ex}
%\setlength{\parindent}{1ex}

\setgoalfraction{0.8}
\numberlinefalse
\begin{document}   
\begin{sloppypar}

\begin{pairs}
    \begin{Leftside}
    \selectlanguage{russian}
        \beginnumbering
            \pstart
            – Тинктура экс витро антимонии, – провозгласил вдруг голос. Я вздрогнул. – Магифтериум антимон ангелий салаэ. Бафилии олеум витри антимонии алекситериум антимониалэ! – Послышалось явственное хихиканье. – Вот ведь бред какой! – сказал голос и продолжал с завыванием: – Вскоре очи сии, еще отверзаемые, не узрят более солнца, но не попусти закрыться оным без благоутробного извещения о моем прощении и блаженстве... Сие есть «Дух или Нравственныя Мысли Славнаго Юнга, извлеченныя из нощных его размышлений». Продается в Санкт-Петербурге и в Риге в книжных лавках Свешникова по два рубля в папке. – Кто-то всхлипнул. – Тоже бредятина, – сказал голос и произнес с выражением:
            \pend
            \setstanzaindents{1,1,1,1,1,1}
            \begin{astanza}
            Чины, краса, богатства, &
            Сей жизни все приятства, &
            Летят, слабеют, исчезают, &
            Се тлен, и щастье ложно! &
            Заразы сердце угрызают, &
            А славы удержать не можно... \& 
            \end{astanza}
            \pstart
            Теперь я понял, где говорили. Голос раздавался в углу, где висело туманное зеркало.
            \pend
        \endnumbering
    \end{Leftside}
    \begin{Rightside}
    \selectlanguage{english}
        \beginnumbering
            \pstart
            “Tincture, ex vitro of antimony,” announced the voice abruptly. I shivered. “Magiphterium antimon angelii salae. Bafllii oleum vitri antimonii elixiterium antimoiale!” There was the sound of frank tittering. “What a delirium!” said the voice and continued, ululating. “Soon these eyes, not yet defeated, will no longer see the sun, but let them not be shut ere being told of my forgiveness and salvation.
            \newline 
            This be from The Spirit or Moral Thoughts of the Renowned Jung. Extracted from his Nighttime Meditations. Sold in Saint Petersburg and Riga, in the bookstore of Sveshnikov for two rubles in hard cover.” Somebody sobbed. “That, too, is delirium,” said the voice, and declaimed with expression:
            \pend
            \setstanzaindents{1,1,1,1,1,1}
            \begin{astanza}
            “Titles, wealth, and beauty, &
            Life’s total booty. &
            They fly, grow weaker, disappear &
            O, ashes! and happiness is fakel &
            Contagion gnaws the heart &
            And fame cannot be kept…”\&
            \end{astanza}
            \pstart
            Now I understood where they were talking. The voice came from the corner, where the murky mirror hung.
            \pend
\endnumbering
\end{Rightside}
\end{pairs} 
\Columns
\end{sloppypar}
\end{document}

Answer 1

I updated reledpar and reledmac packages, and the problem disappeared. For those who use OverLeaf, you have to download .sty files from the TeX Live sources here: http://www.tug.org/texlive//devsrc/Master/texmf-dist/tex/latex/reledmac/.