MOSCOW, August 4. /TASS/. Moscow has registered Western countries’ unfounded attacks against Russian vaccines, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily.

"We have noted unfounded attacks by a number of Western countries against Russian vaccines. At the same time, I would like to emphasize that the Russian Direct Investment Fund and experts of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology promptly provide detailed answers to all specific questions," he said.

Lavrov noted in particular that representatives of France were politicizing that "purely scientific and humanitarian issue." "That stance is out of sync with the approach shown by Paris earlier. We remember the remarks of President Emmanuel Macron that the decision on registering the Russian drug would be based on scientific considerations rather than political ones. My counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian said that, if Sputnik V was approved and certified by the European Medicines Agency and also in France by the High Council for Public Health, there would be no obstacles to its distribution," he went on to say.

Russia’s top diplomat also noted that France was one of the first countries that started a dialogue around vaccines. "In late November 2020, a delegation of French experts came to Russia. They held talks with the top officials of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and the Gamaleya National Research Center. They were also able to familiarize themselves with Russia’s groundwork in the production of coronavirus vaccines," he said.