Russia’s Sputnik vaccine attracts Eastern Europe and worries the EU

As the European Union struggles to expand the launch of coronavirus vaccines through the 27-member bloc, Russia’s Covid trait is feeling appealing to its friends in Eastern Europe, creating another possible fracture in the region.

The Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia have expressed interest in acquiring and deploying Russia’s “Sputnik V” vaccine, a move that could undermine an EU-wide approach to approving and administering coronavirus vaccines.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Sunday that his country could use the Sputnik V vaccine even without the approval of the European Medicines Agency, the European Medicines Agency.

It comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz received a phone call last Friday discussing “possible supplies of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine to Austria, as well as its possible joint production,” he said. the Kremlin, noting that Austria had initiated the call. However, Austria has so far indicated that it would not overlook the EMA in terms of vaccine approval.

Hungary, an EU country that has close relations with Brussels and whose leader Viktor Orban is seen as a close ally of Putin, has not shown much hesitation. It became the first European country to authorize in January – passing the EMA – and acquiring the Sputnik V vaccine.

According to the Moscow Times, the country expects 2 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine to be offered over the next three months. Hungary also approved China’s Sinopharm vaccine last month, backtracking when it comes to EU vaccine approval.

On Monday, Slovakia became the second European country to announce that it had bought the Sputnik V vaccine, getting two million doses of the shot. Slovakia’s health minister said it will not be administered immediately, but it still requires the green light from the country’s national drug regulator.

The pivot to the Russian vaccine comes amid widespread frustration at the slow pace of vaccination launches in the EU. It has been hampered by the bloc’s decision to buy vaccines together and its orders came later than other countries, including the UK and US.

Production problems and bureaucracy, and for some countries, vaccine hesitation, have also been stumbling blocks for the launch.

However, the move by some Eastern European countries to unilaterally endorse Russia’s vaccine will increase problems in Brussels, as it undermines the EU’s desire for a unified approach and a sense of fairness in vaccine distribution.

There have also been concerns about Sputnik V specifically, although subsequent data have confirmed the efficacy and credibility of the vaccine.

The vaccine was approved by Russia’s health regulator in August last year before clinical trials were concluded, prompting skepticism among experts that it may not meet strict safety and efficacy standards. Some experts argued that the Kremlin was eager to win the race to develop a Covid vaccine.

However, the interim analysis of the phase 3 clinical trials of the shot, which included 20,000 participants and was published in the peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet in early February, found that the vaccine had a 91.6% efficacy against symptomatic Covid-19 infection.

In an article attached to the Lancet, Ian Jones, a professor of virology at the University of Reading, England, noted that “the development of the Sputnik V vaccine has been criticized for undue haste. But the result here is clear and the scientist is demonstrated the principle of vaccination, which means that another vaccine can now be added to the fight to reduce the incidence of Covid-19 “.

However, the Gamaleya National Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow, which developed the vaccine, has not yet submitted any application to the EMA for authorization to market the vaccine, the agency reported. of EU medicines in early February.

RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund that has supported the development of Sputnik V, told CNBC on Monday that it had applied to the EU drug agency in mid-February for a continued review of the vaccine. However, the EMA has not confirmed this and CNBC has contacted the EMA for comment.

The European Commission has already warned Hungary, albeit indirectly, against the use of the Russian vaccine before the EMA approves it. In November, a Commission spokesman told Reuters that “the question arises as to whether a member state wants to administer to its citizens a vaccine that has not been reviewed by EMA,” and added that public confidence in vaccination is could harm.

“This is where the vaccine authorization process and trust come together. If our citizens begin to question the safety of a vaccine, if it had not passed a rigorous scientific evaluation to demonstrate its safety and effectiveness, it will be very more difficult to vaccinate a sufficient proportion of the population, “the spokesman said, Reuters reported.

However, Hungary’s decision to go it alone when it comes to the Sputnik V vaccine is not surprising to EU observers. The country’s right-wing leader, Viktor Orban, of Russia’s Putin-like “strong man” type, has had several disputes with the EU executive in recent years, mostly over signs of the government’s growing authoritarianism. The erosion of judicial independence and freedom of the press in Hungary is of particular concern to the EU. However, the Hungarian government rejects these criticisms.

Gustav Gressel, a senior political member of the European Foreign Relations Council, told CNBC on Monday that Hungary’s actions were part of Orban’s “campaign to spread the future of the declining, declining” EU and Hungary to the ‘East, with Russia and China,’ a trend said it had been underway for some time.

Meanwhile, Daragh McDowell, head of Europe and Russia’s chief analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, described the geopolitics surrounding Sputnik V and the EU as “a political theater more than anything else.”

“For Hungary and Austria there is an element of foreign policy signaling here, as both Kurz and Orban have had a closer relationship with Putin than their European counterparts. In the case of the Czech Republic, the momentum seems having been more to show that the government is “doing something” in the face of a rapid rise in the number of cases in February, ”he said.

There are also doubts about whether Russia has the capacity to mass-produce and deliver its Sputnik V vaccine to Europe on a larger scale.

“While the Sputnik vaccine appears to be an effective vaccine in principle, Russia has great difficulty in achieving correct mass production … not enough Sputnik vaccine is yet produced,” Gressel said. McDowell noted that “the question is whether Sputnik V can make a noticeable difference given existing regulatory and logistical issues, and whether the vaccine can be produced in sufficient numbers by Russian or licensed producers.”