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Argentina complains to Russia over vaccine delivery

AFP

Argentina has complained to Russia about delays in delivering second doses of its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in a letter warning of breach of contract repercussions, the government in Buenos Aires said Thursday.

The letter, dated July 7, was sent to Russia’s Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which financially backed Sputnik V, presidential adviser Cecilia Nicolini told reporters, confirming a report by La Nacion newspaper.

In December, Argentina became the first Latin American country to approve the Sputnik vaccine, with the president and his deputy among the first to receive it in a public show of confidence.

The letter said Argentina “urgently” needed delivery of second doses and warned that “the entire contract is at risk of being publicly cancelled.”

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Inoculation with Sputnik V, produced by Russian institute Gamaleya, requires two doses that differ from one another and cannot be swapped or mixed with other vaccines.

The letter said Argentina understood there had been “production difficulties”. 

“But now, seven months later, we are still far behind, while we are starting to receive doses from other providers on a regular basis, with schedules that are met.”

The country of 45 million people had signed a deal with Russia for 30 million Sputnik V doses, of which it has received fewer than 12 million, according to Nicolini.

It has received 9.37 million doses of the first shot, but only 2.49 million of the second.

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At the start of its vaccine campaign, Argentina sought to give a first dose to the largest number of people, to be followed three months later by the second.

Most people who received their first Sputnik V shot are still awaiting the second one more than three months later.

The government has in recent weeks sought to accelerate its vaccination driven in a bid to preempt a rise in infections driven by the highly-contagious Delta virus variant, not yet circulating in Argentina.

Argentina is also using the AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines, and recently received a donation of Moderna shots from the United States.

Just over 17 million Argentines have received a first shot of one of the vaccines, and fewer than six million have received two jabs.

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The country has registered some 4.79 million coronavirus cases and nearly 103,000 deaths.

Russia registered Sputnik V last August ahead of large-scale clinical trials, prompting concern among experts over the fast-tracked process.

It has since been declared safe and over 90 percent effective in a report published by leading medical journal The Lancet, restoring confidence in Russia’s jab. 

The RDIF has signed production agreements with several countries, including India, which is expected to produce several hundred million doses per year. 

The RDIF says its two-dose vaccine has been approved in 68 countries and that it has applied for registration in the European Union.

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“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.

“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.

Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.

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Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

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Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”

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