ROME, March 11./TASS/. Russian Ambassador to Italy Sergey Razov has slammed as "not very productive" attempts to cultivate phobias, including anti-Russian sentiment in connection with the battle against the pandemic and vaccination.
"The interpretations that have appeared in some Italian media organs about a sort of diplomatic-propaganda offensive to introduce the Russian vaccine and even (talk of) vaccine colonization (of Europe) are frankly disconcerting," Razov said in an interview with ANSA on Thursday.
According to Sergey Razov, the embassy is receiving numerous requests from regions, private companies, organizations and individuals to purchase the Russian vaccine or offers to produce it for Italy.
"Our position is maximally transparent - Russia is open for all mutually acceptable forms of cooperation, however respective requests must come through official government channels," the ambassador said in the interview.
The diplomat said that the embassy in Rome had not been involved in negotiations between Swiss-Italian Adienne Pharma & Biotech and the Russian Direct Investment Fund to produce Sputnik V in Italy. The Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce reported that a respective agreement had been reached. Razov said that apart from Italy, Spain, Germany and France, the issue of launching vaccine production was also discussed with Austria.
Earlier, the Italian newspaper La Repubblica made a remark about ‘colonization of Europe’ in an article devoted to prospects for the production of the Russian vaccine in Italy. The newspaper sees exports of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine to Europe as a certain ‘propaganda operation’.
On March 4, the European Medicines Agency announced it had started a rolling review of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. The EU regulator noted that experts would assess the drug’s compliance with the EU standards in the terms of efficiency, safety and quality. Sputnik V is one of the world's top three COVID-19 vaccines regarding the number of approvals received by state regulators. Currently, the Sputnik V jab, developed with the participation of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, has been registered in more than 40 countries home to over 1.1 bln people.