Access to Russian vaccine Twitter account restored

Russia said on Thursday that Twitter restored access to the account of the much-touted Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine.

“Twitter restored access to @sputnikvaccine and explained that they restricted the account due to a possible security breach from Virginia, USA,” the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the sovereign wealth fund, which has financed the development of Sputnik, said in a statement.

Earlier in the day RDIF said that access to the Sputnik Twitter account had been restricted.

Twitter said that “the account was temporarily locked in error by an automated spam filter.”

“The account is now fully operational,” Twitter said in a statement.

Russia in August registered Sputnik V — named after the Soviet-era satellite — months ahead of Western competitors but before the start of large-scale clinical trials, which left some experts wary.

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said Russia’s vaccine was the world’s best and tasked officials with launching mass coronavirus vaccinations from next week.