https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/16381674/russia-stole-formula-oxfords-covid-jab
10 October 2021
RUSSIA stole the formula for the Oxford / Astra Zeneca
jab and used it to help create its own vaccine, ministers have been told.
Security services say they have proof one of Vladimir Putin’s spies swiped the vital data.
They say they have proof that vital data was pinched
from the drugs firm — including the blueprint for the Covid jab.
Russia’s Sputnik jab uses similar technology to the Oxford
designed vaccine.
Last year spies pointed the finger at President
Vladimir Putin. They said they were “more than 95 per cent” sure Russian
state-sponsored hackers had targeted UK, US and Canadian bodies developing a
Covid vaccine.
The late security minister James Brokenshire said at
the time: “We are very careful in terms of calling these things out, ensuring
we can have that confidence in attribution. We believe we have this here.”
Tory MP Bob Seely, an expert in Russian affairs, said:
“I think we need to get serious about Russian and Chinese espionage.
“Whether it is stealing the design for Astra Zeneca or
blackmailing us over energy by these authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, we
need to get wise to them.”
Home office minister Damian Hinds said today: "We
live in world where there's state activity seeking to engage in industrial
espionage and economic espionage.
"We face threats of this type that are different,
they are more sophisticated, they are more extensive than they ever have been
before.
"Constantly there are foreign states who would
like to get their hands on sensitive information including sometimes commercial
secrets."
Downing Street declined to comment.
