How Russia's vaccine disinformation war backfired
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2021
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In October, a Stories of our times investigation blew the lid off a Russian disinformation campaign, which had aimed to stoke fears about the Oxford vaccine.
Now Russia has its own vaccine, Sputnik, which is highly effective but still isn't most countries' first choice. Has the Kremlin shot itself in the foot, and become Sputnik’s own worst enemy?
We revisit our investigation and check in with our Moscow correspondent for an update.
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Guest: Marc Bennetts, Moscow correspondent for The Times and The Sunday Times.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Clips used: BBC, CNBC, CNN, Times Radio, Comedy Central.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's been six months since Vladimir Putin |
| 0:05.0 | shocked vaccine researchers around the world. |
| 0:09.0 | Russia has become the first country |
| 0:11.0 | to give regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine. |
| 0:15.0 | Back in August, amid much fanfare, |
| 0:18.0 | the Russian President announced that Russia's |
| 0:20.0 | sputnik vaccine had become the first in the world |
| 0:23.0 | to be approved for use before clinical trial |
| 0:26.0 | had even finished. |
| 0:28.0 | Around the globe, suspicions grew that Russia |
| 0:32.0 | had cut corners. |
| 0:34.0 | Having a vaccine and proving that a vaccine |
| 0:37.0 | is safe and effective are two different things. |
| 0:40.0 | I hope that the Russians have actually definitively proven |
| 0:43.0 | that the vaccine is safe and effective. |
| 0:46.0 | I seriously doubt that they've done that. |
| 0:49.0 | Shortly afterwards, this podcast revealed |
| 0:52.0 | a Russian disinformation campaign |
| 0:55.0 | aimed at discrediting the competition. |
| 0:57.0 | Propaganda spreading fear about the vaccine |
| 1:00.0 | pushed by Russia. |
| 1:02.0 | A astonishing story, whatever you're looking at with that. |
... |
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