One day after the Russian Embassy offered to negotiate with Albania for the Sputnik V vaccine, Prime Minister Rama considered the offer as inappropriate: “I thought it was a meme […] this is a ridiculous provocation, and it is not ok for a serious country such as Russia, to be ridiculous through such provocations, and neither it is ok for an important Embassy, such as the Russian one, to act like if it was a section of a comedy show,” adding that he couldn’t understand why Russia would engage in the “production of memes”.
The call of the Russian Embassy for negotiations to bring the Russian vaccine in Albania, came after the Prime Minister’s Rama Director of Communications, Endri Fuga, wrote on Twitter that the Western Balkans were left on their own regarding the vaccine against COVID-19. Fuga’s message came by retweeting a comment from Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the EU Commission, who applauded the start of the vaccination process all over the EU.
Through a post on Facebook, by attaching a screenshot of Fuga’s comment, the Russian Embassy said yesterday that the Russian Direct Investment Fund is authorized to start the negotiations with each country interested in buying the Russian vaccine against COVID-19. “We have no doubts that Russia is ready to bring its vaccine “Sputnik-V” also in Albania. The vaccination process with “Sputnik-V” has started in Russia and Argentina, while more than 50 countries have applied to buy 1,2 billion dozes,” said the message from the Embassy.
Later on the conference, Rama said that Albania is focused on the Pfizer, Astrazeneca and Moderna vaccine, and stated that the vaccination process is expected to start in Albania in the middle of January.
