Westerners envious of Russian Sputnik V vaccine

In December, Moscow concluded a deal with Caracas on the supply of 10 million doses of Sputnik V, the world's first registered vaccine against COVID-19, to Venezuela.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has stated that when it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine, Western countries are attacking Russia because of envy, Sputnik reported.

"Now they are carrying out an attack of envy […] because Russia produced in record time Sputnik V, the most effective and safest vaccine against the coronavirus in the world", Maduro said on Wednesday, adding the West is involved in such behavior instead of cooperating with Moscow in terms of vaccine production.

He added that apart from him, his son and sister were vaccinated with Sputnik V, thanking Russia for its commitment to increasing vaccine deliveries to Venezuela, which he recalled was the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean to receive the drug for Phase 3 clinical trials.

The Venezuelan president separately praised Russia's role in producing vaccines against polio and smallpox, remarks that came a few days after a plane carrying a new batch of Sputnik V arrived at the Simon Bolivar International Airport in Caracas.

Earlier this month, Maduro said the Venezuelan authorities are planning to start vaccination of the elderly population using Sputnik V.

The first batch of the Russian vaccine for testing was shipped to the South American country in October 2020, and regular deliveries of Sputnik V began in early February.