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From Paris
Sometimes in today’s world there are contexts with which a good writer would feast on a story. Relations between Russia and the European Union They are the setting worthy of a spy novel, another of love, another of hot and cold war, another of technological clashes, another of planetary influence and, as history is a constant flow worrying ingredients, we must add another: sanitary. Making fun of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine as if it were a joke or elementary political game of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the European Union is gradually opening up its space to the Made in Russia vaccine.
Sputnik V could land very soon in Union territories despite the critical moment in relations between the European Union and Russia. The encouraging results of the Russian antidote, the delay with which Western laboratories, in this case Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca-Oxford, deliver the promised doses, as well as the doubts about the effectiveness of the product AstraZeneca-Oxford against the variant South African covid-19, they changed the position of Europeans.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was the first to speak out in favor of distributing the Russian antidote to all EU countries. In early February, Merkel said Sputnik V was “welcome” and that Germany was even willing to “co-produce” the vaccine with Moscow. After the German Chancellor, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the French President, Emmanuel Macron, have urged the provision of the vaccine. It should be remembered that until now only Hungary distributed the Russian vaccine.
Between Russia and Europe, nothing is ever clear. A very dense political confrontation mingled with the vaccine and today Moscow and the European Union broke off the dialogue against a background of freedom of expression, lThe repression of Russian opponent Alexeï Navalni, the role played in Moscow by the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, and the expulsion of diplomats from both blocs.
In short, there is an entanglement with several plots together: the terrible management of the purchase of the vaccine by the European Union, the delays in the doses purchased from Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca-Oxford, the need to obtain more vaccines , in this case Russian, and political conflict. The plot of the Russian vaccine is ongoing. The condition for Sputnik V arrives in the European Union is that the European Medicines Agency, the EMEA, authorizes it as it did with the other three: Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca-Oxford and Moderna. Moscow and this agency have already started negotiations. Emer Cooke, CEO of EMA, confirmed that discussions are underway with the Gamaleya Institute (the creator of Sputnik). The EMA has also started the preparatory phase for a formal introduction of Sputnik-V on the European market.
For its part, Moscow has announced that it could deliver around 100 million doses to Europe. The Russian option is starting to have political and scientific support, as well as the expectations of public opinion. According to the results published by the medical journal The Lancet, Sputnik V (already approved in around fifteen countries) has an efficacy rate of 91.6%, which places it as the third treatment with the best results after those of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, even above ‘AstraZeneca-Oxford.
However, there remains a possible obstacle, but it is not scientific but political. The European Medicines Agency is open to pressure from European partners and, for the moment, the tension between Moscow and Brussels is enormous. Josep Borrell (head of European diplomacy) recommended the adoption of sanctions against Moscow. The diplomat is very offended by Vladimir Putin. Between February 4 and 7, Borrell traveled to Russia to “clean up” relations with Moscow, but Putin sent him a resounding message after the wave of criticism he received from the European Union because of the crackdown on the supporters of the opponent Alexeï Navalni.
While Borrell was in Russia, Moscow expelled diplomats from Germany, Poland and Sweden, whom it accused of joining pro-Navalni protests. The European Union responded on Tuesday by expelling Russian diplomats from these three countries. On February 9, Borrell himself demanded sanctions against Moscow. Despite the line adopted by the French President and the German Chancellor not to break the bridges with Moscow, the dialogue is now bankrupt. The EU’s foreign policy chief admitted that “our relations are very tense”. For its part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called Europe an “unreliable partner” and said the sanctions against Moscow were “colonial in type”.
Taken as a whole hasty, European Union policy is all the more cynical in that it only seems to remember human rights and fundamental freedoms when something is happening in Russia. It is, along with other countries, their preferred target. When it comes to Iran, Venezuela, Cuba or Russia, Europe disguises itself as an irrevocable apostle of democracy. On the other hand, when, for example, it is about Egypt and its proto-dictator-president, the bloodthirsty general Abdelfatah El-Sisi, the apostolic vocation melts and the decorations on the back of El-Sisi pushed by the wind of arms sales.
In this mega crisis, however, the health emergency and the vaccine intervene and, above all, the position of France and Germany, the two strongest countries in the European Union. It is no coincidence that Joseph Borrell himself said the Russian vaccine was “good news for mankind”. Anyway, once again, Putin he showed that they did not come to see him to give him advice and that he was not afraid of sanctions. Its success is political, scientific and symbolic. The European Union is embroiled in the vaccine crisis caused by Western Allied laboratories while Vladimir Putin has his own and dictates the times and political limits. Before Sputnik-V hit the European market, Putin had already vaccinated Europe.
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