Russia is lagging behind in recognizing COVID-19 certificates issued in the European Union
The European Union accuses Russia of deliberately delaying the recognition of COVID-19 digital certificates issued in the EU, and Europeans cannot travel to this country, despite being fully vaccinated.
According to EU Ambassador to Russia Markus Ederer, all information and requests from Russian health authorities to mutually recognize EU Coronavirus certificates have been sent to the Russian Ministry of Health.
However, the Russian authorities did not prepare the necessary documents to be sent to the European Commission in Brussels. According to Ederer, Russia is intentionally delaying the time for inspection by the European Medicines Agency.
"I regret this, because mutual recognition of equivalence, including by Russia, would certainly make life easier for people traveling in both directions." Ederer told Russian news website RBC in an interview published last week. Moreover, Ederer noted that this delay slows down the process of facilitating travel to Russia and that this is a technical process, not a political one.
These statements come a day after the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that the issue for the approval of the Sputnik V vaccine has been resolved. Furthermore, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which distributes Sputnik V worldwide, said the WHO would send a delegation to visit Russia as part of its approval procedure.
EU Member States joined the EU COVID-19 digital gateway in early June, and since then the unitary document has been issued to all EU citizens who have been fully vaccinated with vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). ), as follows:
- Pfizer / BioNTech (Comirnaty)
- AstraZeneca EU (Vaxzevria)
- Johnson & Johnson (Janssen)
- Modern (Spikevax)
The document is also issued to those who have recovered from COVID-19, giving them the chance to travel abroad at least 30 days after recovery.
Russia currently has the highest mortality rates in Europe, with at least 213.500 people dying from COVID-19. At the same time, Russia ranks second in the number of COVID-19 cases, with 7,7 million reported so far.
Two months ago, the EU invited Moscow to talks on mutual recognition of vaccination certificates, in an attempt to facilitate the movement of people who have been fully vaccinated against the virus.
Russia allows travel to citizens of 73 countries who have been immunized with Sputnik V, including countries such as Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Bahrain, Belarus, Bangladesh, Brazil, Hungary, India, Iran, Lebanon, Northern Macedonia, San Marino, Slovakia , Cyprus, Egypt, Mexico, Greece, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.