Russia and European Union in talks regarding 'mutual recognition' of COVID vaccines

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov asserted that mutual recognition of COVID vaccination certificates with the European Union is "extremely important". He added that mutual recognition of COVID vaccination should be formalised with the European Union, ANI reported. Peskov on Friday, 8 October stressed that the recognition of COVID vaccination will remove the obstacles for the movement of people.

Dmitry Peskov told reporters that there were misunderstandings in the negotiations earlier between Russia and Brussels for the mutual recognition of vaccine certificates. He added that the misunderstandings were likely due to the technology through which the information was provided to each other, according to ANI.

Furthermore, he informed that the negotiations between the two were now being carried out in a "positive way".

"We consider these negotiations very important, we believe that mutual recognition of vaccination is extremely important and it should be formalized. This is needed to remove unnecessary barriers to the movement of our citizens", ANI quoted Peskov as saying. 

Peskov added, "We hope that, in fact, there will be a result soon, this is the most important."

Speaking to Sputnik, the Russian Health Ministry had informed that they had submitted the documents to the European Union for mutual recognition of COVID vaccination certificates. Furthermore, the health ministry added that the representatives of the European Union regulator might visit Russia in December for the Sputnik V vaccine certification procedure.

On the other hand, the European Union has stated that Russia is delaying the mutual recognition of the COVID vaccination certificate. European Ambassador to Russia Markus Ederer has stated that Russian authorities have been postponing the inspection request by the European Medical Agency, reported The Moscow Times citing Russia's RBC news website interview published on Friday. He blamed the Russian authorities for the delay in mutual recognition of COVID vaccines. 

COVID situation in Russia

According to ANI, as of 8 October, Russia reported 27,246 COVID cases in the last 24 hours, taking the overall tally to 7,717,356. The number of deaths reported due to COVID is 936, which brought the overall tally of fatalities to 214,485. 20,566 coronavirus patients were discharged from hospitals across the country, bringing the cumulative total to 6,819,796.

Inputs from ANI

Image: AP