NOVO-OGARYOVO, February 8. /TASS/. Three coronavirus vaccines developed by Russia are a major scientific achievement, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday at a meeting of the Council for Science and Education.

According to Putin, thanks to its scientists, Russia "has leading positions in the world" in developing coronavirus vaccines. "Moreover, we are the only country that already has three vaccines of its own, which are domestically developed," he said.

"Without a doubt, this is a major scientific achievement," the Russian president stressed.

The fact that Russia was able to launch the production of the vaccine and start mass vaccination of the population was even more important, Putin went on to say. "Thus, thanks to the joint efforts by scientists, domestic companies and the state, citizens of our country and other countries can take advantage of this greatest scientific achievement," he stressed.

Putin noted that Russia also needed an equally fast process of introducing and scaling up technologies, creating competitive products on their basis in other areas that were critical for society and every person.

Rollout of cutting-edge technologies

The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the rollout of cutting-edge technologies and the national scientific and technological policy should meet challenges of the time, Vladimir Putin said at the meeting of the Council.

Education, science and technological sovereignty "have currently become not merely important but to a considerable extent decisive, key factors of national security and the quality of life," the president said.

"The momentum for global changes is growing in front of our eyes. The pandemic has not simply become a test for mankind, but it has also boosted the mainstreaming of advanced developments in all spheres of life," Putin insisted. At present, the national "scientific and technological policy and measures to strengthen national science should definitely correspond to the challenges of a fundamentally different level of complexity," the head of state added.

The president urged Russian organizations performing scientific research to pool their efforts in order to achieve the final result, instead of being torn asunder.