A Russian official accused the United States of conducting "information warfare" against the coronavirus vaccine it says is ready for mass use.
Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, told CNBC Wednesday the vaccine news "divided the world."
"It really divided the world into those countries that think it's great news ... and some of the U.S. media and some U.S. people who actually wage major information warfare on the Russian vaccine," he said.
"We were not expecting anything else, we are not trying to convince the U.S. Our point to the world is that we have this technology, it can be available in your country in November/December if that works with your regulator ... [while] people who are very skeptical will not have this vaccine and we wish them good luck in developing theirs."
The vaccine has been labeled "Sputnik V." The RDIF, which the Russian government started in 2011 with the goal of investing in Russian companies, is funding the vaccine effort.
Dmitriev told CNBC that Russia will share data from the vaccine with the rest of the world.
"We agree that nothing in detail has been published yet, we are just sending some information to some of our partners today on the results of the first phases of the clinical trials and it will all be published in August," he said.
There is some skepticism around the Russian vaccine because the program to develop it has not completed the phase 3 trial, which typically involves thousands of people receiving the vaccine to test its safety and efficacy.
As of Wednesday, Russia has seen almost 903,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 15,000 deaths.
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