BRUSSELS: Beijing and Moscow have stepped up “state-sponsored disinformation” campaigns denigrating Western-developed vaccines against Covid while promoting their own, the EU said on Wednesday.

“The so-called ‘vaccine diplomacy’ follows a zero-sum game logic” that seeks to “undermine trust in Western-made vaccines, EU institutions and Western/European vaccination strategies,” a report from the EU’s foreign service said. Since December, Russian media, authorities and state companies have united behind pushing the Sputnik V vaccine while using “antagonistic messaging” to accuse the EU of “sabotaging” the Russian jab, the report said.

“Pro-Kremlin media outlets, including the official Sputnik V Twitter account, have sought to undermine public trust in the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and cast doubt on its procedures and political impartiality.”

The report said that state-backed media had tried to “sow confusion” over an application for marketing approval by the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in a bid to fuel the narrative that the body had been deliberately delaying giving the greenlight. “Pro-Kremlin outlets have also accused the EMA and the EU in general of political bias against the Russian-made vaccine,” it said.

Beijing meanwhile was promoting its vaccines as “more suitable for developing countries,” including those in the Western Balkans, while deploying “misleading narratives” about the safety of Western vaccines and even on the origin of the coronavirus, the report said.