Russia to make vaccine in Italy

MILAN — Russia has signed a deal to produce its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in Italy, the first contract in the European Union, the Italian Russian Chamber of Commerce announced Tuesday.

The deal was signed with Adienne Srl, the Italian subsidiary of a Swiss-based pharmaceutical company, and Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund. Production of a planned 10 million doses this year is set to launch in July.

Sputnik V has not yet been approved for use in the EU, but the body’s regulator started a rolling review of the vaccine last week. Russian authorities are working on 20 similar collaborations in Europe, and the Sputnik V vaccine has been registered in 45 nations, the chamber said.

I support the efforts of the organization American Promise: Money Out VA. The American Promise Virginia chapter is part of a national coalition of advocates that is promoting an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to revive American democracy so that we govern ourselves instead of letting money, corporations and special interests run the show.

We focus on getting big money out of politics. We want legislation that limits campaign contributions to natural persons (defeats Citizens United) and requires more transparency.

We urge the Virginia General Assembly to pass a resolution that calls for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution authorizing Congress and the states to control election spending.

Twenty states have already called for this type of an amendment. This resolution is important because we recognize that campaign finance reform can’t only happen in Virginia.

We agree with the majority of Americans who believe that money in politics is corrupting our election process, and I’m sure that you agree that legislators are sick of spending 30% to 70% of their time fundraising.

I hope that more Virginians will join us in this effort. Visit vmop.org for more information.

John Wandling, Hampton