VILNIUS, February 7. /TASS/. Russia’s embassy in Lithuania has slammed Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte’s tweet about the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine as her participation in the disinformation campaign.

"Despite the wave of disinformation and such biased statements at all the stages of the vaccine development and use, Sputnik’s V efficacy, which has been recognized internationally, speaks for itself," the embassy wrote on its Twitter account of Sunday.

The embassy stressed that what matters most is the fact that "mass vaccination campaign is already underway in Russia," whereas Lithuania’s authorities have not even said when such a campaign is to start in their country.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte wrote on her Twitter account that Russia offers its Sputnik V vaccine "to the world as another hybrid weapon to divide and rule."

Commenting on these words, chairman of the Russian State Duma (lower parliament house) international committee Leonid Slutsky said this was "Russphobic raving revealing pure frustration and envy."

On August 11, 2020, Russia registered the world’s first vaccine against the novel coronavirus. The vaccine, dubbed Sputnik V, was developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry. It is a vector vaccine based on the human adenovirus. Mass production of the vaccine was launched on August 15, 2020. The vaccine has b y now been registered in more than 20 countries.

On February 2, 2020, The Lancet, a medical journal, published the results of the third phase of Sputnik V clinical tests. The vaccine has proved to be among the world’s safest and most efficient. Thus, its efficacy is estimated at 91.6% and 91.8% among volunteers older than 60. Ninety-eight percent of volunteers developed antibodies to the coronavirus. All developed cell-mediated immunity. Immunity after vaccination proved to be by 1.3-1.5% higher than after the disease.

Russia has already lodged applications for registration of the Sputnik V vaccine with the European and with the World Health Organization (WHO). EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said on February 5 that the European Medicines Agency would be able to register Sputnik V vaccine as its efficacy had already been certified.