MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin told Russians on Wednesday he had received the domestically-made Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, as officials try to encourage people to get vaccinated amid a wave of cases.
The Kremlin had previously said that Putin, 68, received a two-dose vaccine in March and April, but it gave no further details and did not release images of him getting it.
That lack of publicity came under the spotlight this month as officials complained about the of slow uptake for COVID-19 shots, which are readily available, and began trying to coax and compel people to get inoculated.
Putin was asked during his annual televised question and answer session which shot he had had.
He said he had been asked not to reveal its name so as not to give the product a competitive advantage, but went on to say it was Sputnik V, one of Russia’s four vaccines. Moscow has not approved any foreign vaccines.
“I thought that I needed to be protected for as long as possible. So I chose to be vaccinated with Sputnik V. The military is getting vaccinated with Sputnik V, and after all I’m the commander-in-chief,” he said.
“After the first shot, I didn’t feel anything at all. About four hours later, there was some tenderness where I had the shot. I did the second at midday. At midnight, I measured my temperature. It was 37.2 (Celsius). I went to sleep, woke up and my temperature was 36.6. That was it.
“I don’t support mandatory vaccination, and I continue to hold this point of view.”
The Kremlin said this week that Russia would fall short of its goal to vaccinate 60% of Russians by the autumn because uptake was so low.
Russia reported 669 coronavirus-related deaths nationwide on Wednesday, the highest official daily total since the pandemic began. It also confirmed 21,042 new cases in the previous 24 hours, including 5,823 in Moscow.
Officials have blamed the surge in cases on the Delta variant.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Andrew Osborn; writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
