As cases, deaths soar in Russia, why are vaccination rates low?

Russia produced the world’s first registered COVID-19 vaccine, but hesitancy persists among swathes of the population.

Anastasiya Kulchina refuses to get vaccinated against COVID. The 72-year-old, an ex-nurse, says that the Russia-made Sputnik V vaccine was developed “suspiciously quickly”, although she admits that her knowledge of virology is not “professional”. “The vaccine is being perfected on us. I don’t want to be a guinea pig,” Kulchina, a grandmother, told Al Jazeera.