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Hungary-EU dialogue on Russian COVID-19 vaccine did not go smoothly — Russian envoy

The permanent representative to the EU said that it was public pressure that made the European Commission recognize Hungary’s right to use Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine

MOSCOW, December 3. /TASS/. It was public pressure that made the European Commission recognize Hungary’s right to use Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, Russian Permanent Envoy to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel on Thursday.

"The European Commission offered a formal rejection to the first request but given certain public pressure, it eventually admitted that the existing rules made it possible to use vaccines not authorized by European regulators based on a fast-track registration procedure," the Russian envoy pointed out.

According to him, in such a situation, Hungary will only be able to distribute the vaccine nationwide. Chizhov noted that EU officials continued to put pressure on Budapest in this regard. "Dialogue - I don’t know if it’s the right word - between Hungary and the European Commission did not go smoothly," he stressed.

European media outlets ignore the very existence of the Russian vaccine, Chizhov went on to say, adding that EU institutions had placed orders for nearly two bln doses of coronavirus vaccines, including those that did not exist then, but no Russian vaccines had been considered.

Hungary was the first EU country to express interest in purchasing the Russian coronavirus vaccine. The matter was discussed at the November 27 meeting of the bilateral intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation. Russia has already provided Hungary with vaccine samples for trials.