Washington imposed sanctions on Russian scientists and specialists who were developing a vaccine for the coronavirus, a comment distributed on Friday by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova reads.
"We consider it egregious to include three Russian research institutes in the US restrictive lists. First of all, we are outraged by the fact that the very scientists and specialists who have worked tirelessly over the past few months to develop a Russian vaccine against COVID-19 have been sanctioned. It is unclear how the American authorities will explain to their citizens this attempt to punish people who are working-and successfully-on a cure for a disease that has already killed more than 180 thousand US citizens," she said.
The United States sanctions against Russian research institutes resemble an attempt to conduct the unfair competition in the production and distribution of coronavirus vaccines, Maria Zakharova said.
"We are not sure that this is the right step to cooperate in the fight against the pandemic, the importance of which, we think, is not disputed even in Washington. It seems that we are again talking about the banal use of sanctions pressure in the interests of promoting their own companies, now pharmacological, by analogy with the ongoing push to the European market of their gas," she said.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS