In an interview on Friday, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund stated, Russia expects to sign a deal with AstraZeneca wherein it will manufacture the COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the pharmaceuticals giant and Oxford University.

On Thursday, Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre had alleged that hackers backed by the Russian state were trying to steal COVID-19 vaccine and treatment research from academic and pharmaceutical institutions around the world.

Russia has denied the allegations.

In an interview, Dmitriev also stressed that the allegations were false and that Moscow did not need to steal secrets as it already had a deal with AstraZeneca to manufacture the British vaccine in Russia.

The deal could be announced later today, said Dmitriev.

“There’s nothing that needs to be stolen,” he said, “It’s all going to be given to Russia.”

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