Russia to donate home-made Sputnik V vaccine to Seychelles |17 February 2021

Ambassador Kozhin in discussion with President Ramkalawan yesterday at State House (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

Seychelles will soon receive a first batch of Russian made Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus (Covid-19) from the Russian Federation including USD500,000 from its (Russian) business community.

It was the ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Seychelles, Artyom Kozhin, who made this statement to the press after paying a courtesy call on President Wavel Ramkalawan at State House yesterday morning.

Ambassador Kozhin said work is underway to formalise procedures for the arrival of a first batch of a limited number of doses of the Sputnik V vaccine for test logistics, especially with regard to its storage, before a larger quantity of the vaccine will be made available for the population of Seychelles.

He further said that the USD500,000 from the Russian business community will go as financial aid towards the vaccination campaign through the Covid-19 Relief Fund.

“Russia wants to offer its help to Seychelles, especially during this turbulent time when the world is fighting Covid-19,” Ambassador Kozhin said, noting that the contribution of the Russian business will materialise first while parties are working for the arrival of the first shipment of the Sputnik V vaccine.

Ambassador Kozhin said that he had a very fruitful meeting with President Ramkalawan where they discussed many issues relating to the forty-five years of friendly diplomatic relations between both countries.

“It was our first official meeting with the President after the October elections and we had a lot of things to discuss. This is a very prominent year for the Russia/Seychelles relations where we are celebrating 45 years of diplomatic ties between our countries and also one hundred and forty years of first direct Russia/Seychelles contact and I think it is very symbolic,” Ambassador Kozhin said.

He added that Russia wants to use the positive atmosphere in the country to further boot relations between his country and Seychelles.

He said that apart from bilateral relations, the discussion with President Ramkalawan included the resumption of flights between Russia and Seychelles, tourism, continued Russian investment, Russian scholarships to Seychellois students among other topics.

“So we had a very detailed discussion on our bilateral ties that have always been friendly throughout the history of our relations. I hope this friendly atmosphere in our ties will continue and together we will make it stronger. As ambassador of my country, I’m working hard on promoting our relations in all fields, including the economy,” Ambassador Kozhin added.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs & Tourism, Sylvestre Radegonde, was also present during the discussion.

Patrick Joubert