The world witnessed Russia registering its first Coronavirus vaccine. Putin stated in a meeting that the vaccine has proven to be effective in tests to counter Covid 19. Russian government led by Putun hailed this as a landmark development as the registration of the vaccine was done with less than two months in human trials. Russia vouched it as a moment to prove the scientific finesse of the country.

This step of speedy registration has raised some concerns from certain sections of observers as the final trials are yet to be completed. Sistema, a Russian conglomerate expects to put the vaccine into mass production by the year end. In the coming weeks, the health workers treating the Covid patients across Russia would be given the chance to volunteer to be vaccinated. An interesting angle to this story is that president Putin said that his daughter has been given a shot of the vaccine.

Whether this statement was issued to build an amount of trust factor among Russians remains to be seen. Mass inoculation will follow after the regulatory approvals which doesn’t seem to be a barrier in the present scenario which may very well be a Russian moment. Head of Russian Sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev commented that this vaccine development is a Sputnik moment in Russian history. He compared it to the 1957 launch of Sputnik I,the world’s first satellite by USSR. In order to take this message further around the world, the vaccine would be marketed under the name of Sputnik V.

It remains to be seen how the vaccine goes through WHO pre qualifications and mandated requirements under TRIPS.