“Russia stole AstraZeneca vaccine to make Sputnik V”, UK security sources say

One more example that the Sputnik V vaccine is strategic and a geopolitical weapon in President Vladimir Putin’s race for power. Russian spy allegedly stole vaccine plan of Oxford so that Sputnik V can be created and the Putin regime can use it to develop it.

British security sources informed ministers by Boris Johnson. But Downing St refuses any comment when Boris is on vacation at a Goldsmith family estate in Spain.

MI5 sources previously said Russian hackers attacked the Oxford vaccine in March 2020. Security teams allege spies working for the Kremlin vital information has been stolen.

Two equal vaccines

The Sputnik it works the same way than Oxford / AstraZeneca to control the Covid-19 epidemic. Putin’s regime announced that Sputnik V was taking place A month later human trials have started.

According to various British newspapers and media, security sources in the kingdom have proof that “a mole from Moscow in the UK he was physically able to fly the top secret plane. “

But it is not known whether this was a document from the laboratory or the factory of the pharmaceutical giant, or a vial of the finished medicine, which was then smuggled out of the lab. But the government refuses to deny or affirm it.

Home Secretary Damian Hinds said on Monday that could not comment on the matter. Corn did not deny it. The British Home Secretary will not say whether Russia has stolen vaccination plans.

“It is fair to assume that there are certainly foreign states which are constantly they would like to have confidential information in their hands, including trade and scientific secrets and intellectual property, ”he said.

The hacker siege

Spies from MI5, the UK’s domestic secret service, have already said that Russian hackers they made repeated attempts to carry out cyber attacks against the University of Oxford, from March 2020.

It was about a month after British scientists announced they had started developing a vaccine. The project was surrounded by extremely high security.

In April of last year, Oxford-AstraZeneca announced that the first human trials were starting. But the following month, Moscow said it had invented its own vaccine. In August, Vladimir Putin delivered a televised speech to the Russian people, announcing that “The country had won the world race to create the first of the Covid-19 ”.

Later it was learned that Sputnik V it works exactly the same way than the British vaccine. Both are viral vector vaccines, which means they both use another inactivated virus to transport the immune agent, which then destroys the coronavirus.

Timeline of events suggests Moscow could have taken the model during the first human trials UK.

The case raises questions about the age of the mole and if he was captured. British security sources told The Sun newspaper that British ministers were told they “had evidence that spies working for the Kremlin had stolen the anti-Covid drug plan from the multinational pharmaceutical company. design your own vaccine”.

Conservative MP Bob Seely, an expert on Russian affairs, said: “I think we should take Russian and Chinese espionage seriously. Whether it’s stealing AstraZeneca’s design or being emphatically blackmailed by these authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, we have to be smart about them, ”he warned.

President Vladimir Putin has confirmed that he received the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia earlier this year.

So far, the World Health Organization refuses to authorize the Sputnik vaccine. Scientists visited the Russian facility in February and could not find the data to corroborate they needed the second dose, asking for corrections and clarification.

Sanitary hostages

So far, they haven’t received them. Thousands of Sputnik vaccinated in Hungary, Argentina, Mexico, they cannot travel and are considered “Medical hostages” because Europe does not accept it either to enter the continent.

It was on April 23, 2020 that human voluntary trials began in Britain on the vaccine with data sent from China.

On April 30, Oxford announced that it would work with AstraZeneca to develop and distribute the vaccine.

In May, the Russian Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology Gamaleya announced that it had developed a vaccine.

UK security agencies are “over 95% safe” that Russian hackers have targeted vaccine developers in Britain.

Conservative MP Andrew Brdgen said: ‘We know Britain has the best scientists and research facilities, but Russia probably has the best spies”.

According to revelations from British newspaper The Sun, British security forces alerted ministers that spies working for the Kremlin had stolen the pharmaceutical company’s vaccine plan to design their own vaccine.

Lancet magazine published two clinical trials conducted in Moscow, which used technology similar to that of Oxford and considered them to be “effective and safe”.

But Western scientists considered that tests in Russia they were too small to justify the injection of millions of Russians. In fact, Russian citizens are reluctant to vaccinate.

Only 76 people participated in the study, half had received the injection and the volunteers were in good health and were between 20 and 30 years old. The tests were carried out at two hospitals in Moscow: Burdenko University Hospital and Sechemov.

Putin got vaccinated after. According to the Kremlin, he had received two doses in March and April.

“As you can see everything is in order and thank goodness we don’t have tragic post-vaccination situations like AstraZeneca and Pfizer,” Putin said in his annual televised address. He recalled that 23 million of the 144 million Russians had been vaccinated.

In Russia there has been a negative campaign for Pfizer vaccine smear and in Africa, a positive campaign on social networks.

Paris, correspondent

ap