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Hungary thanked Russia for supplying the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, RIA Novosti reports. The country will never forget that Moscow responded to Budapest's call for help during the pandemic, said Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations Peter Szijjártó.
Peter Szijjarto recalled that the pandemic had become a challenge for the whole world. The Hungarian authorities decided to purchase the drug from Russia while it was not available in the West. Sputnik V helped save the lives of a million Hungarians, the minister said. According to him, this fact cannot be canceled by any geopolitical considerations.
Earlier, Peter Szijjarto called the non-recognition of Sputnik V in Europe a political issue. He noted that Western European experts in private conversations speak highly of the Russian vaccine, but in public "they behave completely differently." The politician recalled that the vaccine must be approved by the European Medicines Agency, but in emergency situations, this can be done by the national regulator - as Hungary did, becoming the first country in the European Union to approve the Russian drug.
Sputnik V has received approval in more than 70 countries with the total population of four billion people, that is, more than half of the world's population. The effectiveness of the vaccine exceeds 97% in studies involving almost four million vaccinated Russians. Data obtained abroad - in Argentina, Serbia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries, allow the scientists to consider Sputnik V one of the safest and most effective vaccines against coronavirus infection, the Russian Direct Investment Fund notes.
Russkiy Mir
