Apart from the lack of information and mistrust to the government, people oppose vaccination because there are no foreign vaccines available. In response to popular discontent that they are being deprived of choice, the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov replied:
"We have four national vaccines. Isn't it a choice? "
(S)election without an alternative is familiar to Russians and their response to vaccination campaign resembles electoral patterns. Russia has only one safe and efficient vaccine with significant international data from San Marino, Argentina, Hungary and Serbia: Sputnik V. However, Russians prefer to get vaccinated with understudied vaccine - CoviVac - developed by the Chumakov Institute. There is no sufficient data about this vaccine and its developers openly states that they have only preliminary conclusions about it. However, people are lining up to participate in the CoviVac trial instead of getting tested and effective Sputnik V.