Slovakia has become the second EU member to start using Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine without approval from the bloc’s drug safety agency after a torrid dispute over the issue that forced a prime minister to resign. Igor Matovic quit as premier in March after his coalition partners denounced his surprise purchase of two million doses of Sputnik V, which before Monday’s introduction in Slovakia was not being used anywhere in the EU except Hungary. The developers of Sputnik V accused the regulator of “sabotage”, and demanded that it return the doses to Russia and also send some for more testing to an EU-approved laboratory, at which point Hungary stepped in to offer its services. Sputnik V is now available at eight vaccination centres in the country of 5.4 million to anyone aged between 18 and 60, and by Monday some 5,000 people had signed up to receive it. The populist Mr Matovic, who is now finance minister, continues to accuse his critics of politicising issues around Sputnik V so as to attack him and besmirch Russia’s reputation.

Source: The Irish Times June 07, 2021 16:52 UTC