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Senior Serbian politician to be inoculated with Russian vaccine against coronavirus

The country's parliamentary speaker, Ivica Dacic and Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin earlier got inoculated with Sputnik V

BELGRADE, January 15. /TASS/. One of the most influential Serbian politicians, leader of the Serbian Radical Party Vojislav Seselj intends to get vaccinated with the Russian preparation Sputnik V. The politician made this statement on Friday in an interview with the TV Prva channel.

"I want to obtain the Russian vaccine but I cannot get to it. Currently residents over 75 years of age are inoculated first of all and I am 67 and am not eligible. One can apply for vaccination but then I will be waitlisted for six months. In my opinion, the Russian vaccine is the best," he stated.

"I completely trust the Russian vaccine and, as soon as the opportunity arises, I will get it. I hope that the virus won’t catch up with me while I’m waiting," he concluded.

The politician thinks that along with the Russian preparation, Chinese and Indian vaccines are also of high quality. "The Chinese one is of very high quality, I suppose, the Indian one is of high quality, but I consider [the vaccine by] Pfizer and other Western vaccines unsafe because the West lacks the experience Russia has. Russians accumulated a vast expertise fighting Ebola in Africa while Western companies didn’t want to preoccupy themselves with that since there were no sizeable profits, so they ignored [the disease caused by the Ebola virus]," he opined.

Earlier, Serbian parliamentary speaker Ivica Dacic and Serbian Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin got inoculated with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.

On December 24, Serbia launched inoculation with a preparation by American Pfizer. On December 31, the National Medicines and Medical Devices Agency of Serbia issued a permit to use the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus as complying with "all requirements prescribed by law and regulations which confirms its quality, effectiveness and safety." The country received 2,400 doses of the preparation; large supplies are expected before the end of January.