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Coronavirus pandemic

Russian COVID-19 vaccine highly sought after abroad, Kremlin says

Russia registered the world’s first vaccine against the novel coronavirus on August 11

© Natalia Fedosenko/TASS

MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/. Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine is being actively promoted in global markets and is much sought after, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

"Our vaccine is very actively promoted in world markets, very actively promoted within the framework of cooperation with other states," he said, commenting on the discussion of the Sputnik V vaccine in the October 17 telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud.

According to Peskov, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) is promoting the vaccine "in an international format."

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Russia proud of its COVID-19 vaccine not smearing foreign ones — Kremlin

"They are working very successfully, facing high demand for Russian scientists’ products," he stressed.

At the same time, Peskov refrained from responding to the question whether Saudi Arabia’s royal family expressed a desire to be vaccinated against COVID-19 with the Russian vaccine. "You need to get in touch with the royal family to get an answer to this question, we cannot speak for the royal family," he noted.

On August 11, Russia registered the world’s first vaccine against the novel coronavirus. The vaccine dubbed Sputnik V was developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry, and its clinical trials were successfully completed in June-July.

In early October, Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said that the fund was in talks about the production of the Russian vaccine against COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia.

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