Sputnik V is not yet available in the European Union, but it is already causing a stir there.
Sunday evening, Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, described the Russian serum as a
“complementary vaccine”,
indicating that the EU had
“absolutely no need”.
What to attract the wrath of the Kremlin:
"We wonder about the interests defended by these people.
Those of pharmaceutical companies or those of European citizens? ”
Launched Vladimir Poutine, specifying that he himself would be vaccinated on Tuesday.
The makers of Sputnik V for their part blasted a
"new biased comment"
,
touting their product 91.6% effective against symptomatic forms of Covid-19, according to clinical studies.
Merkel and Breton opposed
In Germany, Angela Merkel defends a line opposed to that of Thierry Breton.
The Chancellor said she was ready to have Russian vaccines delivered via a grouped European order.
She specified last Friday that, if there were to be an obstruction,
“Germany should act for itself.” “Angela Merkel had always spoken in favor of Sputnik V,
points out Paul Maurice, researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri), expert in German domestic policy.
She is very pragmatic.
It can condemn Russia's actions in the Navalny affair or the Ukrainian case, while considering the Russian vaccine as one of the solutions. "
The leader seeks to imagine a quick exit from the crisis, when she has just announced an extension of health restrictions.
However,
“a part of the population of the Länder of the East considers Russia as an economic, cultural but also scientific power,
continues Paul Maurice.
These are people who were vaccinated with Soviet vaccines in their youth.
They trust. ”
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Covid-19: Sputnik V, a very political Russian vaccine
Since March 4, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has been conducting an approval procedure for the Sputnik V vaccine. Russia - which has pledged 50 million doses to the EU by June - has already accused it of to drag out the case and several countries have taken the lead, without waiting for the agreement of the European health authority.
Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have ordered.
Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic himself went to receive the first cargo of Sputnik V on the tarmac at Kosice airport, in the east of the country.
A delivery that triggered a serious political crisis and could explode the ruling coalition.
What to do with Russian vaccine diplomacy therefore divides even within the states.
“For Putin, this vaccine is an object of pride.
The name of Sputnik, in the tradition of the conquest of space, is not chosen at random.
The European Union must treat it like other vaccines, without geopoliticizing the subject, ”
warns Tatiana Kastouéva-Jean, researcher at Ifri, specialist in Russia.
According to her,
"Putin is in a win-win position"
since the effectiveness of his product was recognized by the scientific community.
There are then, insists the researcher, only two outcomes: either the Europeans accept the vaccine and implicitly recognize the Russian scientific success, or it is not authorized and the Kremlin
“could denounce an unequal treatment”.
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