Publication

Sputnik V: Not Just a Vaccine

on 30.01.2022

How has the Kremlin used the purchase of Sputnik V vaccine in Slovakia to nurture the broken trust in institutions in Slovakia? And how can the turmoil in Slovakia be utilised across Latin America or Africa?

Katarína Klingová, our Senior Research Fellow, writes, “If the aim of hybrid threats, including information operations, orchestrated by foreign actors is to undermine trust in public institutions and leading (medical) authorities and incite greater societal polarisation, the Kremlin can declare a small victory from this Slovak case. The amplification of attacks against Slovak health authorities and the dissemination of news about the approval of the vaccine in Slovakia into communities in Africa or Latin America demonstrate the power of Russian state propaganda as it seeks to grow its audience and presence worldwide.”

Find out more about how Russia used the Sputnik V vaccine in Slovakia as a tool of its influence in the analysis below. The case study is a part of a larger series, Narratives travelling the information space, supported by the National Endowment for Democracy.

 

Authors

Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Democracy & Resilience

Authors

Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Democracy & Resilience