Overview

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, the sovereign wealth fund of the Russian Federation) was never involved in any political activities, does not interact in any way with Ukraine and follows the world’s best investment practices, which has been acknowledged by all its international partners as well by national regulators. RDIF always fully complies with laws of the countries where it conducts its investments.

Imposition of sanctions against RDIF, which from the moment it was established has stood for building international relations and supporting constructive ties, demonstrates that the U.S. has picked the course to destroy constructive dialogue between countries.

In the past two years, the Fund has been focusing on ensuring global epidemiological safety through its pivotal involvement in struggle against the new coronavirus infection in over 70 countries. In particular, RDIF is the key investor in unique test systems to detect coronavirus infection, anti-COVID medicine as well as in Russian vaccines Sputnik V and Sputnik Light, saving millions of lives by supplying vaccines and facilitating their production in Russia and other countries.

The restrictions imposed by the U.S. authorities complicating RDIF efforts on the international promotion of the Russian vaccine products, have been lobbied by a number of large Western pharmaceutical companies. As a result of such unfair competition, billions of people around the world may be deprived of access to effective and safe Russian-made vaccines. According to the results of studies by Italian specialists from the National Spallanzani Institute, the Sputnik V vaccine showed the best results against the Omicron variant, surpassing the Pfizer vaccine by more than two times in terms of the titer of virus-neutralizing antibodies to the Omicron variant generated after vaccination. RDIF believes that the announced measures to restrict its operations are politically motivated and go against the principles of humanitarian cooperation.

Defamatory and denigrating statements made by the Biden Administration about RDIF have absolutely no basis and represent blatant violation of its rights. RDIF will use all available means to protect its rights, reputation and lawful interests, including seeking judicial recourse in relevant jurisdictions.

Background information

The current attack on the Russian vaccines Sputnik V and Sputnik Light is a direct violation of such basic socio-economic human rights as the right to health and medical care. Unfortunately, similar attempts by the U.S. authorities to limit the use of safe and effective Russian vaccine products have been made before, which was directly confirmed by official documents. For example, according to the U.S. Health Department’s 2020 report, the U.S. health attaché pressured Brazil authorities against Sputnik V purchases. This was openly admitted in the report in the “Combatting malign influences in the Americas” section. After public indignation in Brazil over this report it has later been taken down from the U.S. Health Department’s website and is no longer available.