BERLIN, April 7. /TASS/. The production of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine might start in Bavaria’s Illertissen as early as this year, Bavaria's Health Minister Klaus Holetschek said at a news conference on Wednesday.

"We have a memorandum of intent with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which is practically the Russian government’s authorized organization to sell the vaccine, which could be manufactured in Illertissen," he said.

"I think that it will happen within a year," Holetschek added.

"We have fixed in that memorandum that we will be able to import it too, if there is a mutual decision. The condition is, of course, that it is approved," the minister said. "We are talking about a highly effective vaccine," Holetschek stressed adding, "I want us to obtain it at the earliest opportunity."