Russian Spies Swiped British Vaccine Formula to Make Its Sputnik Shot, Says Report

Ever since Russia’s coronavirus vaccine—Sputnik V—was approved last year, Vladimir Putin has reveled in the fact that his scientists had matched those in the West by creating a seemingly safe and effective shot. However, according to a new report, it wasn’t all Moscow’s own work. British tabloid The Sun reports that U.K. government ministers have been told that Russian spies swiped the formula for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which was then used in the development of the Sputnik shot. The report claims that a Russian agent stole the crucial data in person. The claim hasn’t been confirmed by the British government, but Conservative Member of Parliament Bob Seely told the paper: “I think we need to get serious about Russian and Chinese espionage. Whether it’s stealing the design for AstraZeneca or blackmailing us over energy by these authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, we need to get wise to them.”