With China being blamed by some countries for the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Putin said the crisis shouldn't be "politicised".
As Indian companies prepare to manufacture Russian-made Sputnik V anti-Covid vaccine to satisfy the staggering demand within the country, Russian President Putin on Saturday said Russia is that the only country within the world which is prepared to transfer technology and to expand production abroad, and noted that the vaccine was being sold in 66 countries.
The remarks by the Russian president came each day after the officials in New Delhi said that Serum Institute of India has received a preliminary approval from the country's drug regulator for manufacturing of Sputnik V.
Already Indian pharma company, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, in April, 2021 received the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the Russian vaccine. Also Panacea Biotec together with Russian sovereign wealth fund RDIF has begun the assembly of Sputnik V vaccine in India.
Rejecting allegations over Sputnik V vaccine's efficacy, the Russian president during a virtual interaction with senior editors of major international news agencies, including the Press Trust of India, the Associated Press and Reuters, said that the delay in getting the vaccine registered in Europe was thanks to a "competitive struggle" and "commercial interests" there.
With China being blamed by some countries, especially the US, for the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Putin said an excessive amount of has been said about the topic , and emphasised that the crisis shouldn't be "politicised".
He was replying to an issue on the explanation for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last week, US President Joe Biden announced that he had ordered further intelligence investigation into the origins of COVID-19 amidst allegations that coronavirus originated from a laboratory in China's Wuhan city with former US president Donal Trump calling for imposing a fine on the Asian country for the "death and destruction" it's caused.
"Too many things have already been said on this subject, so it seems to me that creating more comments about this is able to be pointless. i do not think that I can say something new or intriguing," Mr Putin said through a translator.
Noting that there was a competitive struggle against Sputnik V, Putin said, "in 66 countries, we are selling our vaccine, it's an enormous marketplace for us. i'm pretty sure the allegations are thanks to commercial reasons but we are following humanitarian reasons."
