Armenian Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan today was vaccinated with the Russian manufactured Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine.

Samples of the vaccine, recently approved by the Russian government for general use, were donated to Armenia by Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko.

The Armenian Health Ministry, in a statement, said that Torosyan volunteered to be vaccinated to allay fears about the Russian drug in Armenia.

Torosyan’s vaccination might signal the widespread use of the Russian vaccine in Armenia.

Argentina became the third country to approve the two dose shot Sputnik V vaccine, after Russia and Belarus.

Russia has been widely criticized for giving the domestically developed Sputnik V regulatory approval in August after the vaccine only had been tested on a few dozen people. An advanced study started shortly after the vaccine received the Russian government’s go-ahead.