Russian President Vladimir Putin, 68, said the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and mob scene was “stroll,” noting that over 150 rabble-rousers were arrested, facing lengthy jail sentences some as much as 20 years. Putin finds it reassuring that whatever happened on Jan. 6, it didn’t amount to very much, certainly not the “insurrection,” claimed by Democrats in the aftermath of the ugly mob scene largely by cell phone-wielding trespassers, getting their photo-ops to jail. Calling it a “stroll,” Putin wanted to point out that the U.S. government was never threatened, unlike the Russian Federation that faces hordes of rabble-rousers whipped up by dissident Alexi Navalny, a hero in the West for challenging Putin’s 20-year reign of power. Putin said he was glad that his U.S. partner took the chaos and put it back in short-order, restoring stability back to the Congress at a time of political transition.
President Joe Biden, 78, has hammered Putin since taking office, demanding that he release Navalny from prison, something highly unusual for any head of state to meddle in the internal affairs of another country. Putin didn’t ask Biden to release all the rabble-rousers from jail after the Jan. 6 riot. Why would Joe join the madness in Brussels to slap the Kremlin with sanctions over an internal Russian affair? When you look at new violence in Southeastern Ukraine, the U.S. needs Putin more than ever to help calm things down. With the U.S. well positioned with the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, the same can’t be said for European Uninor [EU], where the U.K.’s AstraZenica-Oxford vaccine has been removed from the market for causing blood clots. However Democrats trashed 74-year-old former President Donald Trump in the 2020 campaign, he got along with America’s adversaries.
With only 50 days in office, Biden’s already done considerable damage to U.S.-Russian relations. Biden won’t give Putin any credit for creating, with Moscow-based Gamaleya Sciences a safe and 92% effective vaccine. Instead of picking a fight with Putin, European Commission President Ursula von der Leeyn, should partner up with Putin to supply EU countries with Russia’s highly effective and safe Sputnik V vaccine. It simply makes zero sense for Secretary of State Tony Blinken to step into Russia’s internal affairs, demanding, like Van Der Leyen, that Putin release Navalny from jail. U.S. and EU leaders would scoff at Putin if he suggested releasing a known revolutionary, calling for uprisings and the overthrow of the Russian state. Putin’s glad that his Western partner is back to normal. Why is Biden trying his best to wreck U.S.-Russian relations?
Working together, there’s little the Russian Federation and U.S. can’t do to help improve the global novel coronavirus pandemic. Biden should congratulate Putin on his Sputnik V vaccine and figure out a way to bring it to the U.S. and promote its use all over Europe. Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency [EMA] has rejected Sputnik V for European consumption because there’s not enough data. But the British Medical Journal Lancet reviewed Sputnik V carefully and proclaimed it safe-and-effective. What more does the EMA need to know that they have vaccines shortages all over Europe? If the U.S. CDC or FDA would tell the truth about Sputnik V, the EMA would be more inclined to use Putin’s vaccine, the first one produced on the planet, released Nov. 11, 2020, one month before Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. All the Russian-bashing in Washington and EU needs to stop.
EU countries like the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, have already placed big orders for the Sputnik V vaccines. Other countries, like Italy, Brazil and Argentina, have contracted with Russia’s Gamaleya Sciences to license production of vaccines in their own countries through Swiss Adienne Pharmaceuticals. “Putin is using [the vaccine] to bolster a very tarnished image of Russia’s scientific and technological prowess,” said Georgetown University Prof. Lawrence Gostin, director of World Health Organization’s [WHO] Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law,” making a preposterous argument. In case Gostin hasn’t noticed, Russia has been a reliable leader in ferrying cosmonauts and astronauts to-and-from the International Space Station. Only recently has the U.S., through Elon Musk’s SpaceX, returned to human space-flight after a 10 years hiatus after the Space Shuttle.
It’s time for Biden and his Foreign policy team to stop the Putin-bashing and get on the same page to help defeat the Covid-19 global pandemic. Promoting the use of Russia’s Sputnik V only helps countries without adequate access to effective and safe vaccines. Putin’s vaccine accomplishes the same thing as Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and J&J at one-half the price, about $10 a dose. Putin isn’t using the Sputnik V to gain more leverage on the world stage, he’s doing the world a favor by distributing life-saving vaccines where they’re in short supply. Whatever the competition between the U.S. and Russia—and China for that matter—it’s time to improve the diplomacy and work together to eradicate the deadly coronavirus pandemic. Anything Putin can do to make vaccines more available anywhere on the planet helps global health, and benefits the struggling world economy.
