MOSCOW: Russia has already received preliminary requests for 1 billion doses of its vaccine against COVID-19 from over 20 countries, Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) CEO Kirill Dmitriev said on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia has registered the world's first vaccine against COVID-19.
"We already received tentative interest and preliminary requests for 1 billion doses of Russian vaccine and this is a very significant number, of course.
It's all subject to approval of the vaccine in different markets, it's all subject to production capabilities to produce these vaccines in different markets, but we can confirm that 1 billion is the request, actually slightly more than 1 billion is the amount of preliminary requests we received from more than 20 countries," the RDIF head said at a press conference.