Russian President Vladimir Putin said new domestic vaccines against coronavirus should appear soon.
"We are ready to assist all countries of the Commonwealth [of Independent States] in vaccinating the population with Russian vaccines," he said at a meeting of the CIS Heads of State Council on Friday via video conference.
"Sputnik V and Epivakkorona are both meant, and our other vaccines should appear in the near future," Putin noted.
The Russian leader also offered to work together to organize vaccine production. "I want to confirm that we are ready for this joint work and interested in it," Putin emphasized. In his opinion, "it is very important for the population of the countries, bearing in mind the close contacts in the economic sphere, in the humanitarian sphere between our countries, bearing in mind that hundreds of thousands, millions of citizens move across the borders."
Anti-epidemic measures
According to him, the CIS countries are finalizing a plan of joint anti-epidemic measures. "It is important that the Commonwealth states proceeded from the very beginning from the expediency of collective approaches in the fight against the epidemic, coordination between sanitary services was established," the Russian leader said.
According to Putin, "agreements on cooperation on sanitary protection of territories and response to epidemiological emergencies are being worked on." "An action plan involving joint anti-epidemiological measures is also being finalized," he added.
Putin believes that 2020 was a very challenging year because of the coronavirus pandemic. "Russia has rendered and will continue to render all possible assistance in fighting the coronavirus and overcoming its consequences to all the CIS partners that are interested in it," he assured, recalling that Russia had sent test systems and reagents to the CIS countries to conduct a total of about 1 million 300 thousand tests for COVID-19. Also, the head of state noted, Russian missions of doctors and epidemiologists were sent to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Moldova and Uzbekistan to provide practical assistance in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of coronavirus.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS