Since January 6, text about the imminent introduction of vaccine passports in Europe has been actively spreading on social networks. Only citizens of foreign countries who have been vaccinated with a certified COVID-19 vaccine will allegedly be able to obtain a visa to the EU. The text says that the list of such vaccines does not include the Russian Sputnik V, but for the “elite” already The Pfizer vaccine was specially purchased. We checked whether this is actually true.

Here is the text in full:

"Andrey Bilzho:
IMPORTANT
RECEIVED FROM A CLOSE AND SERIOUS FRIEND FROM ITALY

The European Union is introducing its European vaccine passports, strictly linking the issuance of Schengen visas to them. Only those citizens of foreign countries, including Russia, who show Covid passports with a mark of vaccination with drugs certified in Europe, that is, Moderna and Pfizer, will be able to count on a visa to the EU. Neither Sputnik V nor Vector are included in the EU certified category, which means they become domestic vaccines that do not give the right to enter the EU countries under the new passport and epidemiological rules.

In connection with this circumstance, under the guise of a propaganda campaign for vaccinating ordinary Russians with a sovereign vaccine, loudly unadvertised purchases of foreign vaccines in relatively small volumes for domestic elites and those citizens who can afford to be commercially vaccinated with a vaccine that opens the way to Europe have intensified. Thus, through the R-Pharm company of Alexey Repik, 2 million doses of the Pfizer drug were purchased - for those vaccinated who care about Schengen or, for example, a visa to the USA, Australia and other difficult but attractive countries. For the same reason for the introduction of European vaccine passports, Hungary had to abandon the Russian drug Sputnik-V.

In fact, the pandemic and the associated vaccine race are leading to a new kind of Iron Curtain, when for transfers from Russia to foreign countries, the usual visa formalities are no longer enough, but a mandatory mark on the “correct” vaccine is also required. It is possible that this approach of external partners will be limited to the acute period of the pandemic, which is calculated in one or two years, but it should not be ruled out that the restrictions will come into force for a long time, that is, they will count for five years.

Of course, in such a situation, the best solution would be agreements on the mutual recognition of vaccines, but the epidemiological, and even more so the political situation at international crossroads is such that this goal is so far unattainable, and therefore everyone has their own vaccine and their own perimeter of possibilities associated with it.

I WOULD BE HAPPY IF IT WAS FAKE.”

Presumably, the text began to spread from Andrei Bilzho’s Facebook account. Now there is no such post on his page, but the text has been preserved on some resources - for example, Mayday! And Russian Republic. In the second case, the text was published in a special section “Telegram monitoring” with a link to the Telegram channel “Master of the Pen”, that is, it is presented as information taken from social networks and therefore possibly unverified.

There is currently no information in official sources, including European ones, about the introduction of vaccine passports in all EU countries, nor is there information that citizens of other countries will be required to be vaccinated with a specific drug in order to obtain a Schengen visa. There is information emerging that some countries will use domestic vaccine passports, e.g. Denmark, however, there is no single solution for the EU. The text is distributed only in Russian-language social media and reposts from media outlets that publish information from social media that is not always reliable.

On January 11, news appeared that Pfizer in 2021 would supply the COVID-19 vaccine developed with BioNTech only under already concluded government agreements. Without them, supply to Russia through private clinics at the moment impossible. appeared on January 12 informationthat Pfizer is considering filing an application to register a vaccine against the COVID-19 coronavirus in Russia. There is no exact information yet about whether the Pfizer vaccine will appear in Russia or the timing of this. According to information as of January 13, the Israeli Hadassah clinic in Skolkovo is negotiating the purchase of foreign vaccines.

It is known that from January, Russians who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 will be issued electronic certificates. However, they do not apply to travel abroad.