BERLIN – In these minutes, the first nine German citizens have landed in Moscow to get vaccinated with Sputnik. Tomorrow morning at ten they will receive the first shot of the Russian drug in their hotel, then they will stay an extra day to “relax”, as the brochure states, but also to monitor any side effects. For the recall, in three weeks they will return to Russia again, again for two and a half days. Everything, travel, four-star hotel, assistance, visa and interpreter, costs 2,500 euros. And “The Sputnik V vaccine is provided free by the Russian Federation”, the travel agency “World Visitor” said. Vladimir Putin 34 other German “vaccine tourists” are expected.
Since 1 April, since Russia suspended travel restrictions for foreigners, the “World Visitor” has received six hundred bookings between now and the end of May to go and inject the vaccine not yet approved by the European Agency in Moscow or St. Petersburg. of the drug Ema. “They have decided that coronavirus protection is more important than European authorization,” he comments on the phone with Republic the project manager, Albert Sigl. The first six had already left two weeks ago, but they were Russian citizens living in Germany. The Aeroflot that landed in the capital today was carrying the first nine with a German passport.
Sigl is not entirely satisfied with the six hundred customers between now and the end of May. There could be many more: “we could bring 60 to Russia a day”. But perhaps there is still some mistrust of a vaccine that is not yet known when – and if – it will be approved by Brussels. And the vaccine certificate, issued in Russian and German, obviously does not apply to Europe.
On the site “Meine Impfreise” (“My trip for the vaccine“) you can book various packages: the simplest costs 399 euros and includes only travel, visa and vaccine. “It is designed for those who know Russian and know how to move around the country”, explains Sigl. Then there is the “2 short trips” package which lasts three days for both the first and the second puncture, and includes assistance. But the Norwegian travel agency also offers more complex packages. Vaccine then Trans-Siberian, vaccine then Sochi and, until yesterday, vaccine more sea baths in Turkey. But with the surge in infections in Erdogan’s country, they preferred to cancel the Turkish option.
For now, the “vaccine tourism” towards the great mother Russia as they also called it in the old Communist Germany, has not yet taken off in Scandinavia, the headquarters of the travel agency. “There they listen to what the king tells them,” smiles Sigl. While in Germany Angela Merkel she has always been hyper optimistic about Russian serum, so much so that she started a close vaccine diplomacy with Putin. But the rest of the continent remains more wary.
.