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Diplomat vows Russia will not politicize cooperation on COVID-19 vaccines

12 March 2021 15:02 (UTC +04:00)

Russia will not participate in any political race related to cooperation among nations on coronavirus vaccination, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters at a press briefing on Friday, APA reports citing TASS.

"We are definitely not going to politicize this issue [vaccination against COVID-19], and we are not partaking in any political races, let alone in an infodemic. We hope that we are not subjected to it, I mean a huge amount of fake material. Why am I talking about this? Because, unfortunately, we are becoming the target of falsehood, lies, and a mountain of inaccurate information that is published, and that includes the Russian vaccine and Russian efforts in this area," she emphasized.

Zakharova noted that attempts to discredit Russia and its efforts to create drugs to prevent the coronavirus "work only in one direction: against those who are conducting these schemes." "We are confident that overcoming the ongoing coronavirus epidemic and its large-scale socio-economic consequences requires that the world community unite and coordinate its efforts <…> We would like to believe that our foreign partners, who comprehend the importance of progress in immunizing the entire population on Earth, will stop pouring efforts into politicizing this problem," she added.

Russia was the world’s first country to register a COVID-19 vaccine on August 11, 2020. The vaccine developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology was named Sputnik V. It is a vector vaccine based on the human adenovirus.