With its very name, Sputnik V proclaimed Russia’s prowess in science and technology. But the question was, could you trust a vaccine produced in a country where basic information about the seriousness of the epidemic was suppressed? Would you take a shot from a regime that was in the habit of depositing neurotoxins in the underpants of its political opponents, as the FSB did to Alexei Navalny in August 2020? In Russia, as in the U.S., reputable laboratories spoke out to demand that the Sputnik V testing program adhere to the recognized standard for Phase III trials.
