Putin Finally Confirms He Took Russian-Made Sputnik V Vaccine

Vladimir Putin usually loves nothing more than flaunting his flesh on camera—so some people in Russia thought it was pretty weird that he refused to get his coronavirus vaccine live on television as his country was ravaged by the virus. Some speculated that it was because he didn’t want to be seen taking a foreign vaccine, and that speculation became more intense when the Kremlin repeatedly refused to disclose which vaccine the Russian president had taken. However, Putin finally tried to clear up the confusion on Wednesday by claiming that he had taken the Russian-made Sputnik V shot. The Russian president said on state news on Wednesday: “I knew that I needed to be protected for as long as possible, so my decision was to get the Sputnik V jab.” Earlier this year, a poll showed that 62 percent of Russians did not want to be vaccinated with Sputnik V, so Putin’s statement could be seen as an attempt to encourage more people to take the homegrown shot.