The opportunity for a common vaccine against COVID-19, brings Putin and Merkel together

The Kremlin announced that discussions were held within a call the two leaders received Tuesday.

“U discussed co-operation issues in combating the coronary pandemic with an emphasis on possible prospects for the joint production of vaccines”, Kremlin said in a statement.

The statement said reconciliation has been reached for contacts to continue between the health ministries of both countries and specialised agencies.

The two leaders also discussed resolving the conflict between Kiev and pro-Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, as the situation has remained blocked since peace agreements were signed in 2015.

Russia and Germany have recently launched massive vaccines to curb the spread of the coronary and avoid the restoration of deadlocks across the country.

Germany is using the vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and the Mainz-based company BioNtech, while Russia has released its massive sputnik V vaccine.

In August 2020, Russia announced it would begin using its vaccine before the start of large-scale clinical trials, raising concerns about the speed of the licensing procedure.

Some critics have described the move as a means to strengthen Russia's geopolitical influence.

Alexander Gintsburg, director of the State Research Centre Gamaleya that developed the Sputnik vaccine, said on Tuesday that over 1 million people in Russia have been vaccinated.

Moscow also sent its vaccines to Belarus, Serbia and Argentina, and announced that Bolivia will be supplied with 2.6 million doses.