Putin Awards State Prizes to Sputnik V Developers

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th June, 2021) Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday awarded state prizes to scientists who developed the country's flagship vaccine against the coronavirus, Sputnik V, and commended the achievement as a triumph of the Russian science.

"The power of Russia's science and science education was clearly showcased last year, when people worldwide where waiting for a solution to the pandemic to come from the scientists. Our researchers achieved success, even triumph, in the shortest period of time when they created a safe, effective COVID-19 vaccine - Sputnik V," Putin said at the State prize in Science and Technology 2020 awards ceremony.

The award was given to the Director of the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology Alexander Gintsburg, the Deputy Director of the Center for Research Denis Logunov and the Medical Service Colonel Sergey Borisevich.

"Let me highlight: such a result was achieved thanks to the unique knowledge accumulated, among other things, during the creation of other vaccines, such as the one against Ebola.

The findings by Russian scientists open doors for the creation of long-awaited vaccines from many other, dangerous, viruses," the president added.

According to Putin, the creation of Sputnik V allowed Russia to ensure that vaccines were available to all citizens as well as to people in countries in need. Putin added that this was "the responsibility of our country as the leading, worldwide scientific power."

Russia's Sputnik V vaccine was approved in 67 countries with a total population exceeding 3.4 billion people. Sputnik V holds the second place in the world in terms of the number of approvals received by government regulators and has a 97.6% effectiveness in accordance to results received from vaccinating 3.8 million Russians, the Gamaleya Research Center reported.