A video of a volunteer who took part in a clinical trial for a Russian COVID-19 vaccine has surfaced with claims that misidentify her as Russian president Vladimir Putin's daughter.
The video shows the volunteer, identified as Natalya, studying medicine, inside a hospital lounge after receiving the vaccine. Furthermore, an unrelated image from 2017 showing Putin being felicitated by a girl, is also doing the rounds, where the latter has been misidentified as Putin's daughter.
These images and video are viral in the backdrop of reports about Russia developing the COVID-19 vaccine "Sputnik V". The Associated Press further reported that Putin's daughter is among those who were inoculated. 'Sputnik-V' COVID-19 produced by Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow in coordination with the Russian Defence Ministry was approved after initiating human trials in less than two months.
According to reports, Russia has prepared two forms of the vaccine, which were developed by the institute. They were separately tested on volunteers (20 volunteers for second dose) at two clinics, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University and the Burdenko Main Military Clinical Hospital.
The video is doing the rounds with the caption, "Respect Putin's daughter was among the volunteers for trials. #RussianVaccine #Russie."
The tweet is archived
here.
Another tweet has been archived
here.
A screengrab from the video, along with an unrelated image is viral with a similar narrative in Bengali. (Original text in Bangla: আজ নবেল করোনা ভাইরাস প্রতিরোধক ভ্যাকসিন আবিষ্কারের পর তা প্রথম প্রয়োগ করা হলো রাশিয়ার প্রেসিডেন্ট ভ্লাদিমির পুতিন কন্যা মারিয়া পুতিনের দেহে)
The post is archived
here.
Fact Check
BOOM ran a search on YouTube in Russian with keywords "Vaccine volunteer in COVID-19 trial" and found several videos through which we were able to ascertain that the volunteer seen in the viral video is not Putin's daughter. We found a video on YouTube that was
uploaded on July 20 by The Fist Sevastopol (sev.tv). She can be seen being given the COVID-19 trial shot.
The video is headlined as Experiment Over - Vaccine Testers Discharged. (Original text in Russian: Эксперимент окончен – испытатели вакцины выписаны)
The description of the video reads, "The experiment has come to an end. The second group of volunteers was discharged from the Main Military Clinical Hospital named after academician Burdenko. The Russian Ministry of Defense, together with the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, has successfully completed the phase of clinical trials of the vaccine. Those who tested were found to have antibodies to coronavirus. And the components of the medicine are safe and well tolerated by humans, said the colonel of the medical service Sergei Borisevich in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper."
We also found another video which
was uploaded to YouTube by Zvezda News, a Russian TV Channel on June 26.
From time stamp 1: 04 onward the volunteer can be seen going through the process of the clinical trial.
According to a Russian language expert, the volunteer for human trial is identified as one Natalya in the news bulletin. The bulletin states, "Natalya is one of the six female candidates who volunteered for the experiment. She is a future Army doctor and therefore she was the first one to enter the procedural cabin for the injection of the experimental vaccine, setting an example for the men." Natalya is quoted as saying in the bulletin, "I was not nervous and was morally prepared, I went inside understanding that this is for a greater good in field of medicine. We are trying this on ourselves to prove that its safe and in future it might save lives".
The same was corroborated by another video from news outlet
REN TV where Natalya was quoted on June 26.
She spoke about her experiences on the trial process.The English translation of the headline reads: "Without fear and pain": volunteers described the sensations of the COVID vaccine. Read more about Natalya's experiences
here.
According to reports, Putin has two daughters from his former wife Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Ocheretnaya, Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova. Which of Putin's two daughters was administered the vaccine has not been divulged.
Image Of Putin With A Young Girl
The viral image of Putin being felicitated by a girl was
published by Sputnik on June 12, 2017. The caption of the image reads, "Russian President Vladimir Putin and Polina Mogilian from Astrakhan at a ceremony of presenting passports to ten young Russian citizens who excelled in studying or displayed courage in emergency situations as part of the We Are Citizens of Russia nationwide action." The image is also available on
alamy.
