Putin receives second dose of coronavirus vaccine

On Wednesday, April 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he had received his second dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

“I want to inform you that right now, before entering this room, I also received a second vaccination and I’m sure that everything will be fine,” Putin said during a meeting of the board of trustees of the Russian Geographical Society, as quoted by Interfax. 

The Russian president also expressed the hope that the meeting’s participants were “taking care of themselves and their loved ones,” and that they will get vaccinated too.

Putin received his first coronavirus shot on March 23. The vaccination took place out of the public eye, and the Kremlin didn’t disclose which drug Putin received.

Asked about why he wasn’t vaccinated on camera like other world leaders, Putin said: “Well, do we really have to monkey around with you? Do we have to do it as someone somewhere else does it? Well, probably not. […] After all, if at such a level someone wants to falsify something, to trick someone, this isn’t hard to do.”