Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Wednesday that he had received the second dose of a vaccine against the coronavirus, calling on everyone to “follow their example”.
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“I want to inform you that just a moment before entering this room, I had my second vaccine and I’m sure everything will be fine,” he said during a video conference with the Russian Geographical Society broadcast on television.
“Follow my example,” he added.
As after the first dose received on March 23, the Russian president, 68, did not specify which vaccine was injected. Three vaccines have been developed in the country, only one of which, Sputnik V, is currently distributed on a large scale.
No image of the vaccination was released.
Many leaders around the world have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, including US President Joe Biden, Pope Francis and Queen Elizabeth II.
Some did it in front of the cameras to encourage their fellow citizens to do the same, but the Kremlin spokesman had explained Mr. Putin’s refusal by his desire “not to play the wise monkey”.
Despite the proclaimed success of its Sputnik V vaccine, approved in around 70 countries, Russia is struggling to vaccinate its population, a large part of which remains suspicious.
At the end of March, after receiving his first dose, Mr Putin claimed that 6.3 million Russians had received at least one dose, predicting that 70% of the population would be vaccinated by the end of the summer.
After a first containment imposed in spring 2020, Russia has gradually relaxed its measures to fight the coronavirus, ensuring that the peak of the pandemic has passed and not wishing to further penalize an already sluggish economy.
Officials have, however, been alarmed in recent weeks of a possible third wave, the contamination figures going back to Moscow, the epicenter of the pandemic.
Russia has recorded more than 4.6 million cases and 104,000 deaths, according to the official report released on Wednesday. These figures are however considered to be very underestimated, the excess mortality in 2020 compared to 2019 having thus exceeded 320,000 deaths, according to the statistical agency Rosstat.