Russia says the U.S. mainstream media is waging a ‘major information warfare’ against its coronavirus vaccine

Yesterday, Russia announced it has completed the clinical trials of a vaccine against covid-19 and will be made available for emergency use on health-care workers this fall. The clinical trials of the Russian vaccine were completed in less than two months and phase three trials are set to begin shortly, despite the vaccine having already been registered.

The Russian vaccine was developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow. Although it has been tested on some volunteers, the clinical trials of the Russian vaccine were completed in less than two months and phase three trials are set to begin shortly, despite the vaccine having already been registered.

In an announcement Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the registration of the first vaccine for the coronavirus in the world. President Putin said:

“As far as I know, a vaccine against a new coronavirus infection has been registered this morning, for the first time in the world,” he said at a meeting with members of the government, RIA Novosti reported. Although I know that it works quite effectively, it forms a stable immunity and, I repeat, has passed all the necessary checks.”

Vladimir Putin also reportedly said that one of his daughters had been vaccinated against the coronavirus, saying, “In this sense, she took part in the experiment.” Putin said on Tuesday that Russia had become the first country to grant regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine after less than two months of human testing, a move Moscow likened to its success in the Cold War-era space race.

According to report from Interfax news agency, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said today that allegations that the vaccine was unsafe were groundless and driven by competition.

Kirill Dmitriev, the chief executive of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund RDIF, which is backing the vaccine named “Sputnik V,” said that Western — and specifically U.S. — criticism of the vaccine was biased. In an interview with  CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” Wednesday, Kirill Dmitriev said:

“It (the announcement) really divided the world into those countries that think it’s great news … and some of the U.S. media and some U.S. people who actually wage major information warfare on the Russian vaccine.”

“We were not expecting anything else, we are not trying to convince the U.S.,” he added. “Our point to the world is that we have this technology, it can be available in your country in November/December if that works with your regulator … (while) people who are very skeptical will not have this vaccine and we wish them good luck in developing theirs.”

According to the New York Times, however, the Russian vaccine uses an adenovirus to deliver components of the pathogen that causes covid-19. The approach is similar to one being advanced by Oxford University and AstraZeneca.