Putin hopes that Russia could avoid new lockdown

Russian President Vladimir Putin has voiced hope that the country could avoid a nationwide lockdown amid a surge of new infections

MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced hope Wednesday that the country could avoid a nationwide lockdown amid a surge of new infections. Speaking in a live call-in show, Putin said that decisions by local authorities in a number of regions who made vaccination mandatory for some workers should help contain the new wave of infections and avoid a lockdown. The “actions of our colleagues in certain regions are aimed at avoiding the need for a lockdown, when entire enterprises shut down and people are left without their jobs, without their salaries,” Putin said. He also revealed that he chose Sputnik V — the domestically developed coronavirus vaccine Russia hailed as the first in the world to be authorized for use — for his vaccination. Putin got his first coronavirus shot in late March out of the public eye, and has remained tight-lipped about which vaccine out of three domestically developed ones available at the time he chose.