Its name alone speaks of Russia's ambition: Sputnik V, the country's leading vaccine against Covid-19, is meant to be a world-beater just like its cosmic namesake. Back in August, it was the first to be registered for emergency use although it had only been tested on a few dozen people. Now doctors, teachers and social workers are being offered Sputnik V in a mass inoculation campaign ordered by President Vladimir Putin. Its timing, just ahead of a similar launch in the UK, is unlikely to be a coincidence. But Sputnik V is still in the midst of trials to check that it's safe and actually works, making some Russians wary of receiving it yet. And despite a fanfare over the vaccine's grand rollout, there are still problems scaling up production. In a sense, this is no "launch" at all. Russian health workers have been getting vaccinated in tandem with the official trials for several months. Teachers have been eligible too, and VIPs including President Putin's own daughter have had the jab. The list is said to total more than 100,000 people.