All news

Russia ready to share with Finland technologies for Sputnik V production, says speaker

The Sputnik V vaccine is currently among the top three global coronavirus vaccines in terms of the number of approvals received from government regulators

MOSCOW, March 4./TASS/. Russia is ready to provide technologies for the production of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said in a phone call with former President of Finland Tarja Halonen.

The telephone conversation initiated by the Finnish side "focused on the situation involving the spread of the coronavirus infection across the globe," the press service of the upper house of the Russian parliament said.

"Valentina Matviyenko informed Tarja Halonen about high efficacy and safety of the Russian vaccine, about its wide international recognition, as well as about Russia’s readiness, if the Finnish side shows interest, to provide relative technologies and groundwork for launching production in Finland," the press service added.

The former Finnish president said she would inform the country’s leadership and concerned agencies, it said. Matviyenko "emphasized that there should be no artificial obstacles and politicization in the supply and distribution of vaccines and medicines in the world, when the lives and health of people are involved," the press service added. The interlocutors also emphasized the importance of creating conditions for a fair distribution of vaccines among the population of various countries, it said.

The Sputnik V vaccine is currently among the top three global coronavirus vaccines in terms of the number of approvals received from government regulators. As of now, Sputnik V has been registered in 42 countries with a total population of over 1.1 billion people.

Russia on August 11 was the first country in the world to have registered a vaccine against the coronavirus, called Sputnik V, produced by the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology.