ST. PETERSBURG, June 4. /TASS/. The West’s struggle to discredit Russia’s anti-coronavirus jabs are nothing but "a crusade for cash," and Russia’s competitors are doing it "with their inherent pomp," Russian President Vladimir Putin said during today's plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

"I think that this is a crusade for cash by those who produce similar vaccines in other countries and who want to tap into the European market. They are doing it with their usual inherent pomp, and they are doing it well," he said in response to a question about Western countries considering the Russian vaccine as "a weapon and a means of influence."

"Those who engage in this type of activity have certain interests, they want to penetrate the market with those companies that they have worked for over a period of many years," Putin specified. "They have a multi-layered system of mutual interests, and I won’t go into details right now. As for what you said about politics, that it’s a tool of commercial interests, that speaks for itself," the leader pointed out.

The Russian head of state mentioned a conversation he had with an EU official who claimed that Moscow did not apply for the consideration of its vaccine to the corresponding regulators. "He told me: "You want to sow discord between our states and reach a deal with someone separately, why don’t you apply to the corresponding European structure?" I told him that we did. He said no. I said yes. Maybe I’m wrong?" Putin continued. "I called [Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana] Golikova and asked her if we had applied. She said: "Of course, we did, last year." And only in March of this year, the corresponding European structure announced that it was launching the [vaccine] review process. And to this day, it has been reviewing it, as we can see," the president stressed.