Relations between Moscow and the West have deteriorated due to the situation in Ukraine and around Crimea, which was reunited with Russia after a referendum on the peninsula. Moscow was accused of interfering and sanctions against it were imposed. Russia retaliated, embarking on a course of import substitution. Also, the authorities have repeatedly noted that it is counterproductive to talk with Moscow in the language of sanctions. Russia has repeatedly stressed that it does not participate in the conflict in Ukraine and is not a subject of the Minsk settlement agreements.
Summary
Discrediting the Russian vaccine “Sputnik V” aims to make it difficult for it to enter the international market… These subversive efforts come from a military background, and therefore this is a comprehensive policy to confront and contain Russia by NATO countries, especially the United States.
Disproof
A recurring disinformation narrative about alleged anti-Russian bias in the West and plots against Russia’s achievements.
Contrary to the baseless claim, reservations and criticism of the Sputnik V vaccine is not caused by the NATO or the US refusal to accept Russia’s accomplishment but by the fact that Russia hasn’t completed large trials to test the vaccine’s safety and efficacy, and rolling out an inadequately vetted vaccine could endanger people who receive it, in the time when WHO insists that a vaccine must undergo thorough testing.
On the other hand, there is credible evidence that the Russian government pressed Russian scientists and researchers to be the first in the world to develop a vaccine and did everything to shorten the process, for geopolitical and economic gain.
The World Health Organisation expressed some reservations about the procedure followed by Russia, initiating talks with Russian authorities about undertaking a review of the vaccine but refusing to endorse it right away.
See other examples of these narratives in our database, such as the supposed anti-Russian bias of international institutions - be it the OPCW, the World Anti-Doping Agency or the United Nations - which always falsely accuse Russia; or that ugly commercial interests are behind the criticism of the Russian vaccine and that the West criticises “SputnikV” because it can’t accept Russia’s primacy.