Russia’s readiness to establish broad depoliticized cooperation in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic was presented by the West as an instrument of Russian influence, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told reporters on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Primakov Readings forum.
"The pandemic came as a definite shock to everybody, since it became clear that there can be no safe haven either around NATO or around the European Union. The broadest cooperation is necessary," the senior diplomat said.
"However, even our very open, honest policy aimed at establishing the most far-reaching cooperation that would be absolutely depoliticized, was all the same demonized and presented as a new instrument of Russian influence," he said.
"We were ready to not just sell our vaccine, but to cooperate on its production, and to transfer technologies, and so on. In the end, given the growing interest in cooperation on that track, even in EU countries, this is just more proof that the seeds of reason are still finding their way through this impenetrable concrete soil," TASS cited Grushko as saying.
