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Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 Vaccine: 1 Million Shots, Skepticism At Home, Politics Abroad

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Russia's campaign against Covid-19 is continuing, and has now passed the milestone of one million inoculations. As well as being an urgent matter of public health, this is also a matter of international prestige—and persuading a skeptical population.

The website of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF)—Russia's sovereign wealth fund, responsible for worldwide marketing of the Sputnik V vaccine—proudly displays a series of press releases announcing new contracts to supply Sputnik V to countries where it has been registered for use.

As the pandemic continues to threaten both public health and economies across the globe, more and more countries seem keen. In some cases, such as in Serbia, the vaccine is delivered from Russia.

Other countries, especially those with larger populations, are reaching agreements with RDIF to manufacture Sputnik V. Reuters reported January 8 that Uniao Quimica in Brazil planned to start making eight million doses a month.

Russia was the first country in the world to announce, back in August 2020, that it had a vaccine. Inoculations with Sputnik V began before clinical trials were completed.

Putin's Pledge To Receive Sputnik V

Although the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has not yet taken the vaccine himself, he has said that he will do so (the reason he gave previously was that people like him did not yet have access to it—as in other countries, those considered most vulnerable because of their age or general state of health have had priority.)

Putin did take the unusual step of making a public reference to his private life soon after Sputnik V was announced. The Russian leader said that his daughter, whom he did not mention by name, had received a dose of the vaccine.

So far, she is among a minority of Russians—and not, it seems, simply because of the usual logistical and supply challenges that any country would face in rolling out a mass vaccination program.

Russians Skeptical About Vaccine

From the moment the vaccine was first unveiled, Russians were not convinced. Even the Kremlin-backed RT website reported back in August 2020 that only 42% of Russians were willing to try Sputnik V. More recent polling by the respected Levada Center, published in December 2020, suggested that only 38% were willing to be vaccinated.

This apparent problem of trust is not confined to faith in vaccinations. When in May 2020 the Financial Times and New York Times suggested that Russia's COVID-19 case numbers might be much higher than official figures suggested, they were sharply criticized by the foreign ministry in Moscow.

That was before the admission December 29—from deputy prime minister, Tatiana Golikova—that, if excess deaths were included, Russia's death toll from Covid-19 would be as high as 186,000: three times the official figure.

Such uncertainties will not help to convince a skeptical Russian public—and may also complicate efforts to promote Sputnik V internationally.

The Politics Of International Vaccine Sales

As Bloomberg noted January 7, many of those countries that have ordered Sputnik are Moscow's political allies.

Could that change in the future? Relations between Russia and Germany have been very poor since the expulsion in 2019 from Berlin of two Russian diplomats following a fatal shooting in the German capital—but Putin and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, were reported January 7 to have discussed the possibility that Sputnik might be made in the EU (once it was licensed there.)

This is an incredibly challenging time for world leaders who must balance the competing pressures of public health, their countries' economies, and international politics.

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