RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has finally agreed to get a Covid jab to encourage Russians to get themselves vaccinated.
The 68-year-old will be vaccinated tomorrow behind closed doors with one of the three Russian anti-coronavirus drugs.
This comes as Germany has attempted to strike a deal with Russia for a supply of its Sputnik V vaccine, amid the flagging jab rollout across Europe.
There has been surprise that after announcing approval of the world’s first vaccine in April last year, Putin had not gone under the needle sooner.
He said: “Vaccination is a voluntary act,” he said.
“It is a personal decision.
“By the way I am going to do it (get vaccinated) tomorrow.”
Despite the jab delay, Putin has been out and about meeting people unmasked.
One theory is that he wants to have full protection in time for May 9, when Russia commemorates Victory Day, marking the end of the Second World War.
His spokesman said: “Putin will get vaccinated with one of three Russian vaccines.
“All of them are reliable.”
While Putin announced his impending vaccination, his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov showed himself to be a quarantine sceptic.
Lavrov was pictured during a China visit in a mask with the slogan FCKNG QRNTN.
The Kremlin’s top diplomat was presented on his 71st birthday with the mask by journalists and, according to Russian state media, “jokingly expresses the feeling of exasperation experienced around the world toward measures against the coronavirus”.
With several EU nations facing severe lockdown restrictions due to a third wave of Covid, some are now turning to Russia for salvation.
Both Italy and France have been plunged into another lockdown after suspending use of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Thousands of jabs were cancelled after the panic over claims it could cause blood clots, despite the European Medicines Agency deeming it safe and effective.
Sputnik V’s developers claimed last week they had production deals with France, Spain, Italy and Germany.
German health minister Jens Spahn suggested that Germany could even negotiate their own deal with the Kremlin.
He said: “I am very much in favour of us doing it nationally if the European Union does not do something.”
Sputnik V has shown protection rates comparable with the leading Western jabs.
The two other Russian-made coronavirus vaccines and EpiVacCorona, developed by the Siberian research centre Vector, and CoviVac, from the Chumakov Research Institute.
So far 6.3 million Russians have been vaccinated, with 4.3 million having had two jabs.
