TASS reported last week that an unnamed, high-ranking Kremlin official told them: “A scenario of information attack on Sputnik V is being prepared through controlled non-governmental organizations” and that it would include “faking mass deaths allegedly caused by the use of the medicine.” It was not further explained at the time.
On March 17, the Mexican government announced that customs officials in southeast Mexico caught smugglers transporting 1,000 vials of counterfeit “Sputnik V” vaccine. The small plane was at Campeche International Airport, and was planning to fly on to Honduras. The Russia Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the sovereign wealth fund developers of the actual Sputnik V vaccine, stated yesterday: “This is an example of possible provocations against Sputnik V just as Russian officials warned last week.” Further, the “Mexican government stopped and prevented this provocation, possibly aimed at discrediting the Sputnik V vaccine through the shipment of fake vaccines.”
It has not yet been reported what was in the counterfeit vials and whether it was dangerous, nor whether there were the makings of a staged scene in Honduras. However, after the bizarre set-up question that George Stephanopoulos posed to President Joe Biden on March 16, as to whether Vladimir Putin was “a killer,” the TASS claim of last week no longer appears to be simply out of the blue.
