Russia’s vaccine diplomacy is eviscerated as Ukraine invasion rumbles on
As sanctions begin to bite, Russia is struggling on all fronts. And the steady gains it made in international vaccine diplomacy during the pandemic are being eviscerated.
Only a month ago, countries like Kenya and Gabon abstained from voting in the UN security council over the Ukraine crisis. “The reason for this is that they were recipients of brotherly fraternalism from Russia and China in the form of vaccine diplomacy,” said Bociurkiw during the London panel. When countries accept vaccines, he said, they have to know the rules. “It was payback time.”
That all seems to have melted away now. Vaccine diplomacy can only go so far, it seems: Gabon and Kenya were both on the list of countries that voted in favor of the UN General Assembly motion condemning the invasion on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Sputnik V is fighting hard against Western sanctions. In normal times, Sputnik’s Twitter account is engaged in heavy Pfizer-bashing, even making deceptive comparisons between the Western vaccine and erectile dysfunction medication.