MOSCOW, May 18. /TASS/. The EU leadership is preparing another smear campaign against Russia trying to accuse it of igniting an anti-vaccination drive, Director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergei Naryshkin said, according to the statement of the SVR press service.
"According to the available information, the EU leadership is preparing yet another smear campaign against Russia, this time trying to blame Moscow for sparking the ‘anti-vax’ movement abroad. Indeed, there are no limits to cynicism and hypocrisy," he said. The official noted that Russia persists in conducting dialogue with EU’s relevant structures, the leadership of member states, in the interest of facilitating the soonest mass inoculation of Europe’s population, including with the tested and reliable Sputnik V jab.
"Russian authorities are open to consider the issue of lifting the patent restraints to relevant inventions. The real impediment to the expansion of the vaccination scale in European countries is the counteraction of EU officials," the SVR director said. He noted that the European Medicines Agency in reaction to the informal directions of high EU officials continues to block the certification of Russian vaccines. "How can one not think of motivation for such an odious position? What stands behind this - ungentlemanly competition, banal corruption or an inhuman policy when human illnesses, suffering and deaths take a back seat. While only political goals are front and center. Residents of European countries, get ready, soon you will be splashed with another ‘bucketful of lies’ about Russia," the official stated.