PARIS, July 26. /TASS/. Moscow doesn’t accept Paris’ politicized reluctance to recognize Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the Russian embassy in France said on Monday.
"What we really don’t accept is France’s politicized unwillingness to recognize one of the most efficient vaccines, Sputnik V, which has already been approved in 67 world nations," it wrote on its Facebook account.
The Russian foreign ministry on Friday called on European politicians to rely on scientific publications rather than on political propaganda when speaking about the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine.
Vaccination data from regulators in a number of countries, including Argentina, Serbia, Bahrain, Hungary, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, San Marino, the Philippines and others, indicate that Sputnik V is among the safest and most effective coronavirus vaccines available.
Russia’s embassy in France also slammed as outrageous allegations about Russia’s involvement in the anti-vax movements in social networks.
"We took with surprise and indignations [France’s ex-interior minister and now parliamentary president of the ruling party La R·publique en Marche] Christophe Castaner’s statement that "Russia and other countries" could be behind anti-vaxxer groups in social networks," the Russian embassy wrote on its Facebook account. "We would like to stress that our principled position is to ensure maximal vaccination coverage of the planet’s population against the coronavirus infection."
In an interview with the RMC radio station earlier, Castaner gave an affirmative answer to the question whether Russia or other countries could be influencing anti-vaxxer groups on Facebook.
Amid a dramatic surge in Delta strain cases, the French government drafted a bill expanding the use of sanitary passes and the immunization scale. The bill envisages obligatory vaccination of employees of medical institutions, homes for the elderly, firefighting and rescue services, and a number of categories of the military. The bill stirred discontent in the country, which has been engulfed with protests for the two past weeks. Around 170 such actions involving more than 160,000 people were stages across the country on Saturday. At least 11,000 people took part in protests in Paris.
Earlier on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that only 60% of the French had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.