GENEVA, October 5. /TASS/. Russia calls on the World Health Organization (WHO) to analyze legal and financial consequences of the termination of the United States’ membership in the organization, Russian Deputy Health Minister Alexandra Dronova said on Monday.

"The Executive Committee and the World Health Assembly should thoroughly analyze legal, procedural, administrative, financial and other consequences of the termination of the United States’ membership in the WHO and take corresponding decisions," she said at a special session of the WHO Executive Committee dedicated to anti-coronavirus efforts.

She slammed claims voiced against the WHO by some states as ungrounded, "including unsubstantiated and inadmissible allegations that the WHO deliberately concealed important information at the early stages of the pandemic."

"We are strongly against politicization of international cooperation in the sphere of public health, we condemn destructive steps geared to weaken the WHO’s role," Dronova stressed, adding that such actions "do harm to the multilateral anti-coronavirus efforts and should be correspondingly condemned."

The senior public health official also called for ensuring "general, timely and equal access to safe, high-quality and effective medical technologies and products to combat COVID-19." She stressed that unjustified obstacles for such access should be removed and noted the WHO’s fundamental role "as a coordinator of international anti-COVID efforts." Russia stands for "further consolidation of the organization as a leader of international healthcare cooperation," she said, adding that Moscow believes that the WHO’s anti-coronavirus measures were "professional and timely."

Dronova recalled that Russia had offered "serious financial and expert support to the WHO since the very first days of the pandemic." "Our country has unique experience of efficient combating the coronavirus infection. A coherent system of measures has made it possible to prevent an explosive development of the epidemic in Russia," she noted.

According to the deputy health minister, Russia "has filed an application with the WHO to put the Russian [anti-coronavirus] Sputnik V vaccine on the list of medicines for use in emergency situations."

The US decision to withdraw from WHO

US President Donald Trump said on May 29 Washington was terminating relations with the World Health Organization because its management, as he claimed, had refused to conduct reforms the US side insisted on. Trump once again accused the WHO of being controlled by China, claiming that China and the WHO had taken no due measures to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus infection. UN Secretary General Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on July 7 the United States had informed UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres about its withdrawal from the WHO after July 6, 2021.