The director of the US National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC), William Evanina, accused Russia, Iran and China of trying to prevent Washington from getting the coronavirus vaccine.
In an interview with Hearst, Evanina noted that Iran and China are currently competing with the rest of the world in the development and production of vaccines.
“Russia has openly announced that it has a vaccine.
You know, I'm not sure about that, "said the head of the NCSC.
William Evanina
Reuters
© Joshua Roberts
He added that the US even has a special public and private sector vaccine protection program called Operation Warp Speed.
Its goal is to protect US R&D in areas vulnerable to theft, mainly from China, Evanina explained.
“We are identifying malicious actors around the world who are trying to infiltrate this vaccine and our production.
We are trying to prevent such attempts before they are implemented, ”he stressed.
Probability theory
This is not the first such accusation by Washington.
For example, in July, the intelligence services of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement claiming that Russia was allegedly involved in cyberattacks on facilities related to the development of vaccines against coronavirus.
Relevant statements were published by the British National Cyber Security Center, the Canadian Communications Security Center (CSE) and the American National Security Agency (NSA).
Dominic Raab
Reuters
© Toby Melville / Pool
As noted in the document, it is allegedly about the activities of the hacker group APT29, also known as The Dukes and Cozy Bear.
“This is a cyber espionage group that is almost certainly part of the Russian special services,” the report says.
According to Western intelligence, during 2020, the targets of the APT29 group were organizations involved in the development of a vaccine against COVID-19 in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.
"Their goal was likely to steal information and intellectual property related to the development and testing of vaccines against COVID-19," the authors of the document say.
"It is completely unacceptable that the targets of the Russian special services are those who are fighting the coronavirus pandemic," said British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab, commenting on the accusations.
Moscow denied these accusations.
“We do not accept these charges.
We do not know who and what tried to hack in the UK, but Russia certainly has nothing to do with this, ”said Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president.
Immune question
The development of vaccines against coronavirus is underway in a number of countries, including the UK, USA, China, Germany, Iran, India and South Korea.
In total, about 150 different vaccines against COVID-19 are being developed in the world.
The first in the world to receive state registration was the Russian vaccine against the coronavirus Gam-COVID-Vac (Sputnik V), developed by the National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after N.F. Gamaleya of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.
The drug passed clinical trials in the summer, and a post-registration clinical trial of the vaccine is underway, in which 40 thousand volunteers will take part.
According to the Russian Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko, the full-scale introduction of the vaccine into civilian circulation can begin as early as October-November this year.
Another Russian coronavirus vaccine may be registered in mid-October.
This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting with the chairman of the political council of the Ukrainian party "Opposition Platform - For Life" Viktor Medvedchuk.
“The work on it is almost finished,” the Russian leader noted, and explained that he was talking about the EpiVacCorona drug of the Novosibirsk center “Vector”.
As White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said, the United States does not intend to accept the results of tests of the Russian vaccine.
The official also added that he would not inject himself with a Russian drug.
Besides,
The Bureau of Industry and Security under the US Department of Commerce has sanctioned five Russian research institutes, including the Defense Department Research Institute, which took part in the work on the vaccine.
Russian vaccine against coronavirus
RIA News
© Alexey Danichev
The American authorities accused these organizations of carrying out activities related to the development of chemical and biological weapons.
At the same time, the market entry of American vaccines against the COVID-19 coronavirus has so far stalled, although there are five such drugs in the third, final stage of trials in the United States.
Speaking at a press conference at the White House in mid-September, Donald Trump said that the COVID-19 vaccine will become available to the public in October or "a little later."
However, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Robert Redfield, at a Senate hearing, called for a different time frame.
In his opinion, a vaccine against a new type of coronavirus will become available to American citizens around the second or third quarter of 2021.
On October 6, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released updated safety standards for coronavirus vaccine manufacturers.
According to the new rules, developers are required to track the status of participants in trials for two months before applying for approval to register a drug in an expedited manner.
According to US media reports, this provision has previously become a stumbling block between the FDA and the White House, which insists on the need to accelerate the release of vaccines.
In his October 8 speech, the head of the White House, Donald Trump, said that although the vaccine should have been ready before the elections, "politics intervenes."
"Okay.
They want to play their games.
It will be right after the elections, ”he added.
Geopolitical tool
As Pavel Feldman, deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Research and Forecasts of RUDN University, noted in an interview with RT, the accusations that are now being voiced by the American intelligence community against Russia, China and Iran are groundless.
“These are expected attacks, which are primarily based on the commercial interests of American pharmaceutical companies.
The fact is that American politicians and law enforcement agencies are subject to colossal lobbying pressure from the largest pharmaceutical companies, "the expert explained in an interview with RT.
Donald Trump
Reuters
© Erin Scott // File
According to Feldman, now the American pharmaceutical business is aimed not only at starting to sell the vaccine to its own population, but also to impose its products on the foreign allies of the United States.
“The accusations against Russia are simply part of an unfair competition, the same one that is currently underway around gas supplies to the European market and the Nord Stream 2 project.
American business is extremely unhappy that Russia is preparing to produce a cheap and effective vaccine while American drugs have not yet been registered.
As they say, nothing personal, just business, ”Feldman is sure.
A similar point of view is shared by Konstantin Blokhin, a researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In his opinion, Washington believes that the appearance of a vaccine may affect the alignment in the world economy.
“And this is so, since the country that will be the first to launch the mass production of the drug will be able not only to export it, but also to start restoring its own economy, undermined by the pandemic.
The vaccine will give the country a lot of benefits and huge profits.
Undoubtedly, the United States would like to use such an instrument for geopolitical purposes.
The issue also has internal political significance - the fact that in the United States, unlike Russia, such a drug has not yet been registered, negatively affects Trump's positions.
So the accusations against other countries are intended simply to justify their own problems, ”the expert summed up.