Putin is struggling to sell Russia’s vaccine in New Rift With West

Photographer: Andrey Rudakov / Bloomberg

Russia accuses the West of maligning its achievements in the global race to defeat Covid-19, while attempts to win key markets for its Sputnik V vaccine meet regulatory requirements.

“We understand the game,” Kirill Dmitriev, executive director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, who supported the development of Sputnik V and negotiated its international launch, said in an interview. “It is a combination of misunderstandings, strong bias and, indeed, very strong efforts to undermine the Russian vaccine.”

Like neighboring China, that is struggling to reassure vaccine-testing nations, Russia’s effort to turn what it calls a scientific triumph into geopolitical dividends has hit unexpected winds.

President Vladimir Putin has pushed the inoculation into appeals with other world leaders since he promoted Russia’s approval of Sputnik V in August as the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine. But regulators in many countries have not been willing to give Sputnik V quick approval – even if they receive American and European vaccines that have completed full-time studies for the first time.

The access contest echoes the Cold War space race triggered by the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of the world’s first satellite, Sputnik, for which Russia’s vaccine is named. While Moscow was first in space, it was overtaken by the United States, which landed a man on the moon 12 years later.

Russian officials blame Sputnik’s difficulties in bias. The Foreign Ministry recently described the vaccine race as the latest phase of a long “war of disinformation” against Russia.

Regulators who have asked for more data say they are just trying to make sure that Sputnik V, which Russia approved weeks before Phase 3 studies to show its safety and effectiveness, is as good as its supporters claim. .

The takeover was slow. It was not until December 21 that neighboring Belarus became the first country outside Russia to approve Sputnik V, and Argentina followed two days later. Argentine vaccinations began on Tuesday with about 300,000 people expected to initially receive Russian shots, and Belarus began its program on the same day.

But India, Brazil and other major markets are not expected to sign until next year, after several attempts.

“Russia is using its immunization program for low-power diplomacy,” said John Moore, a vaccine researcher at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. “It is an international race, there is nationalism at stake. But it all depends on whether the vaccines are effective and safe. “

The Russian vaccine received a boost earlier in December, when AstraZeneca PLC agreed to test a combination of his inoculation with one of the two photographs that make up Sputnik V. Putin attended the video conference announcing the live signing of national television.

However, the 68-year-old leader said on December 17 that he was waiting to receive the vaccine until it was disposed of for his peers.

Putin’s comments shook Argentine officials, who had planned to launch a campaign against the elderly. His spokesman said this week that the president was willing to inoculate himself after research extended the age range for the safe use of Sputnik V.

Critics say Russia’s decision to approve the vaccine so quickly, before its developers published scientific data and after only limited studies, undermines confidence. Western officials, including US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, described the move as premature, publicly questioning Sputnik’s safety.

Russian officials consider the attacks to be unfair competition, although polls show that many Russian citizens are skeptical about the safety of available vaccines.

Russian drugs are gaining access to some markets. Guinea became the first African nation to start distributing Sputnik V this week, and Bolivian President Luis Arce signed a contract Wednesday to buy 5.2 million doses, with a premium of 6,000 expected to arrive in January.

bondage has received its first batch of 2,400 Sputnik V photos and will begin using them in a few days, pending approval by the national drug regulator, Deputy Health Minister Mirsad Djerlek said on Wednesday.

While Dmitriev was optimistic in a September interview with India TV, his hopes of an immediate warm reception from regulators in other countries did not materialize.

“Absolutely safe”

“We are absolutely confident that it will receive emergency approval in several markets around the world as early as November,” he said, arguing that Sputnik is “better, much safer” than Western vaccines that use different technologies.