'Didn't want to ape': Putin reveals why he chose not to take COVID-19 jab publicly

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin got vaccinated last week, although privately, behind the closed doors and chose not to disclose which of the three domestically manufactured jabs he took. Joining the ranks of world leaders like US President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Britain's Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, among many others, Putin received the first shot, but unlike most leaders getting jabbed on Live TV, he got vaccinated without reporters or the media. 

“When it comes to getting vaccinated on camera, he has never supported that, he doesn’t like that,” Dmitry Peskov said, as quoted by AP. 

The Kremlin leader, in a televised interview, stated that he did not want to “ape” the other world leaders and make the vaccination about a public show. He also indicated that there was, as a matter of fact, no credibility in getting inoculated LIVE on TV as the injection might be “faked.” Putin alleged that the leaders could simply be faking the vaccination and what is being injected to them might be a saline solution than a real vaccine dose, there was no way of knowing. He stressed that he did not prefer having the cameras and media while getting jabbed unlike the other world leaders, who touted receiving COVID-19 vaccine dosage on television. 

"Russians will hear about the president’s vaccination," Peskov said, when asked why Putin will not publicly administer the dose. He said,  Putin is already doing “a lot” for promoting the vaccination campaign.

“The president dedicates a rather significant time in his working hours to events, discussions, meetings related to vaccination, production of vaccines, and so on. So the president does a lot for the propaganda of the vaccines,” Peskov was quoted as saying by AP.

'We will not show this', Putin's spokesperson said

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Moscow’s broadcaster RFL that the 68-year-old leader did not prefer to get inoculated in a public event. "We will not show this, you will have to take our word for it," Peskov said in the radio address. He added, “As for being vaccinated in front of the cameras, he [Putin] does not like it." Furthermore, he emphasized the safety and efficacy of all the three COVID-19 vaccines, namely EpiVacCorona, Sputnik V, and CoviVac which received the authorization for emergency use saying, “We are deliberately not saying which shot the president will get given that all of the vaccines are good and reliable.”

When asked how would the people believe that the Russian president has been vaccinated, Peskov said “You will have to take our word for it.” Putin had expressed his willingness to get the vaccine last month as he told his media managers at a closed-door meeting that he will administer the jab by the end of the summer, although he did not want to do it for the sake of publicity,  a report carried in Russia’s Kommersant newspaper had revealed. 

(Image Credit: AP)