Something happened again. On March 3, it became known that the inventor of the Russian Covid-19 vector vaccine Sputnik, Andrey Botikov (47), was found dead in his apartment in Moscow.
As international media reports, the Russian virologist Andrey Botikov was found dead in his apartment on Rogova Street in Moscow. He is said to have been the victim of a robbery. On March 2, a 29-year-old reportedly broke into his apartment and strangled Botikov with a belt.
British magazine Newsweek says it is just another death in a long line of mysterious killings among the Russian elite. A longer list of these incidents has also been published there.
The murderer is said to have been caught by Russian special forces within a very short time. He should confess.
Botikov has worked as a virologist at the Gamaleya Research Center since 2014 and was part of the 18-strong team that developed the Russian vaccine. Russia claimed that it achieved 91 percent effectiveness in clinical trials, making it work unlike other vaccines. The vaccine was released for use on August 11, 2020. In Russia, however, the population was not so easy to convince of the need for a Covid vaccination, only 60 percent of the people had at least one vaccination administered.
Botikov’s death came two weeks after that of Major General Vladimir Makarov, a senior Russian military official who, according to state investigators, took his own life after being discharged from service.
There are already some rumors about the circumstances of death. Some media reports that the murder was preceded by a dispute. The perpetrator was already on the run because of a capital crime. According to RND, since the beginning of the corona pandemic, several employees of the Russian health care system have fallen unhappily out of windows and died on the occasion.