Why has Russia been able to develop and produce Sputnik V while Central and Eastern
European (CEE) countries that are members of the European Union have only played a
marginal role in global supply chains for the production of vaccines against COVID-19? We
argue that this capacity results from efforts by Russia’s national security state and entrepreneurs
to turn a Soviet advantage in the development of biological weapons into a contemporary
public health advantage in vaccine and drug development. CEE countries have lacked Russia’s
historical legacy of and contemporary drive for security motivated statecraft. Nor have they
massively invested – as for example Cuba has – into their public health systems and in potential
synergies between such systems and biotech firms.
