The Russian Sputnik vaccine is attracting Eastern Europe, worrying the EU

As the European Union strives to increase its distribution of coronavirus vaccines across the 27-member bloc, Russia’s Covid vaccine is proving attractive to its friends in Eastern Europe, creating another potential loophole in the region.

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

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Sunday that his country could use the Sputnik V vaccine even without approval from the EU’s drug agency, the European Medicines Agency.

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

Hungary, an EU country that has strained relations with Brussels and whose leader, Viktor Orban, is seen as a close ally of Putin, has shown no such hesitation. It became the first European country to authorize in January – bypassing the EMA – and buy the Sputnik V vaccine.

The country expects 2 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine to be delivered in the next three months, according to the Moscow Times. Hungary also approved China’s Sinopharm vaccine last month, again going against the grain when it comes to EU approval of the vaccine.

On Monday, Slovakia became the second European country to announce that it bought the Sputnik V vaccine, guaranteeing 2 million doses of the vaccine. Slovakia’s health minister said it will not be administered immediately, as it still requires the green light from the country’s national drug regulator.

The pivot towards Russia’s vaccine comes amid widespread frustration with the slow speed of the launch of EU vaccination. It was hampered by the bloc’s decision to buy vaccines together, and its orders came after other countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States.

Problems with production and bureaucracy – and for some countries, hesitation of the vaccine – have also been obstacles to the launch.

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

There were also concerns about Sputnik V specifically, although subsequent data supported the vaccine’s effectiveness and credibility.

The vaccine was approved by the Russian health regulator in August last year, before clinical trials were completed, raising skepticism among experts that it may not meet strict safety and efficacy standards. Some experts argued that the Kremlin was eager to claim victory in the race to develop a vaccine for Covid.

However, the interim analysis of phase 3 clinical trials of the injection, involving 20,000 participants and published in the medical journal The Lancet in early February, found that the vaccine was 91.6% effective against symptomatic Covid-19 infection.

In an attached article in the Lancet, Ian Jones, professor of virology at the University of Reading, England, noted that “the development of the Sputnik V vaccine has been criticized for the unseemly haste. But the result reported here is clear and scientific – the principle of vaccination is demonstrated. , which means that another vaccine may now join 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 applied for a marketing authorization for the vaccine to EMA, the EU drug agency said in early February.

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

The European Commission has already warned Hungary, albeit indirectly, against the use of the vaccine from Russia before the approval of the EMA. 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 the EMA,” adding that public confidence in vaccination may be undermined.

“This is where the authorization process and the confidence of the vaccine meet. If our citizens start to question the safety of a vaccine, if it had not undergone a rigorous scientific assessment to prove its safety and effectiveness, it will be much more difficult to vaccinate a sufficient proportion of the population, “said the spokesman, Reuters reported.

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

Gustav Gressel, senior policy member of the European Council on Foreign Affairs, told CNBC on Monday that Hungary’s actions were “part of Orban’s campaign to propagate a ‘declining and declining EU’ and Hungary’s future in the East , with Russia and China, “a trend he said had been going on for some time.

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

“For Hungary and Austria, there is an element of foreign policy signaling involved here, as Kurz and Orban in general had a closer relationship with Putin than their European counterparts. In the case of the Czech Republic, the impetus seems to have been more to demonstrate that the government is ‘doing something’ in the face of a rapid increase in the number of cases in February, “he said.

There is also doubt as to whether Russia has the capacity to mass produce and deliver its Sputnik V vaccine to Europe on a larger scale.

“Although the Sputnik vaccine appears to be an effective vaccine in principle, Russia has great difficulties in obtaining the correct mass production … there is still not enough vaccine for Sputnik (being) produced,” said Gressel. McDowell noted that “the question is whether Sputnik V can make a noticeable difference, given existing regulatory issues and logistical problems, and whether the vaccine can be produced in sufficient numbers by Russian producers or under license.”