Russian President Vladimir Putin is holding his annual Q&A broadcast with Russians on Wednesday where he responds to questions from people across the country.
At the start of the event, he said he had been inoculated with Russia-developed Sputnik V vaccine.
"I thought that I needed to be protected as long as possible. So I chose to be vaccinated with Sputnik V. The military is getting vaccinated with Sputnik V, and after all I'm the commander-in-chief."
The Russian president said he wasn't consulting with his doctors about this, but rather looked at choices his acquaintances made, and went for Sputnik V, as it provided the longest protection against the virus, Putin said.
He also stressed that he is against imposing nationwide mandatory COVID vaccinations.
"I said once as you remember that I don’t support compulsory vaccination. And I continue to adhere to the same point of view, " Putin stressed, answering a question whether vaccination against COVID-19 should be voluntary.
Speaking in a live call-in show, Putin said that decisions by local authorities in a number of regions who made vaccination mandatory for some workers should help contain the new wave of infections and avoid a lockdown.
The “actions of our colleagues in certain regions are aimed at avoiding the need for a lockdown, when entire enterprises shut down and people are left without their jobs, without their salaries,” Putin said.
He noted that about 23 million Russians have been vaccinated against COVID-19, with not tragic outcomes after inoculation being registered.
"By now, more than twenty million, twenty-three million, as far as I know, have been vaccinated. As we see, everything is all right. Thank God, no tragic situations have been reported in Russia after vaccination, like after the use of AstraZeneca or Pfizer," he said.
"This is known very well, specialists have said repeatedly both on television and on the Internet, as well as in all possible media outlets, on all channels that vaccination is the only way to prevent the further spread of the epidemic," the president said.
Russia has such a possibility, since four "high-tech, safe and highly efficient" vaccines have been registered, Putin stressed. "I hope that the prejudice of some of our citizens will be disappearing as the vaccination continues," Putin added.
The Russian leader stressed that it is unlawful to threaten dismissal to those employees, who refuse to get vaccinated because of medical counter-indications.
In his question to the president, a Moscow resident, said that his wife, a secondary school teacher, has medical counter-indications to vaccination because of an old chronic disease but the school director ignores this fact and demands his wife "present vaccination documents by July 15," otherwise she would be fired.
"I can say right away - it is unlawful. If a person has medical counter-indications, no one has the right to demand he or she got vaccinated. I think that the director of the school, where your wife is working, doesn’t know about that. I hope he will hear, what I said, and will withdraw these illegal demands," Putin said.
"I hope in the end we will still achieve such herd immunity, which we are speaking about, including thanks to active vaccination process, and schools, higher education institutions, small and medium-sized businesses and our large companies will work as normal," the Russian president said.
Mass vaccination against the novel coronavirus infection of people older than 18 kicked off in Russia on January 18. By today, four COVID vaccines, namely Sputnik V, Epivaccorona, CoviVac, and Sputnik Light, have been registered in Russia.
In Russia, vaccination against coronavirus is voluntary. Compulsory jabs are required only in some regions and for certain groups of citizens, including staff of the services sector.
