A first batch of 100,000 Sputnik V vaccines, out of 10 million agreed with Russia, arrived in Venezuela on Saturday, the government of Nicolás Maduro announced.
The goods arrived at Maiquetía International Airport, which serves Caracas, transferred from Moscow on a plane of the Venezuelan airline Conviasa.
“We are proud of the Russia-Venezuela cooperation” amid financial sanctions imposed by the United States to try to remove Maduro from power, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez told reporters, calling the measures a “criminal blockade.”
“It is the result of the fruitful work” of both countries, said Russian Ambassador to Caracas Sergei Melik-Bagdasarov.
Venezuela participated in the clinical trials of Sputnik V.
The group represents 1% of the total agreed in November with Russia by a delegation of the government of the Caribbean country visiting Moscow.
Maduro said that health personnel will be vaccinated as a priority, but also activists from his political party: We are Venezuela.
The Socialist president has projected that the mass vaccination process will begin in April.
Neither Caracas nor Moscow have specified when the next batch will arrive.
In addition to the 10 million doses agreed with Russia, Venezuela has reserved between 1.4 and 2.4 million AstraZeneca vaccines through the Covax system of the World Health Organization (WHO).
However, these doses failed to reach Venezuela because the country has not paid its debt to the WHO, Alena Douhan, the UN special rapporteur, said on Friday to assess the impact of sanctions on human rights. The first payment deadline expired on Tuesday.
The Maduro government has seen limited access to foreign state accounts with blocked funds under the control of opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who has been recognized as president of Venezuela by the United States and fifty other countries.
With 30 million inhabitants, Venezuela has 132,259 confirmed cases and 1,267 deaths caused by covid-19, according to official figures, questioned by organizations such as Human Rights Watch.