The Conservative MP told talkRADIO the Russian President is attempting to consolidate control by announcing his nation has the first COVID-19 vaccine. Mr Ellwood added Mr Putin’s true intention was to unsettle the West by making western states believe Russia had got there first.
Mr Ellwood said: “I would stay well clear of it.
“Firstly, let’s understand that this is a game-changer, if you find the answer to this, the huge economic advantage you will get by providing that vaccine.
“It will liberate your economy, there is huge political power as well, you can share that vaccine with your friends and allies, prevent your adversaries from getting it.
“No wonder Putin wants to be there first, but I think this is all about a distraction.”
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The Conservative MP continued: “He sees what is going on next door in Belarus, another rigged election and Putin likes to be in the limelight.
“He is a very proud man, he has just managed to secure the presidency for life.
“I think this is all about him consolidating control.
“This is all about unsettling the West, it is about making us worried we have not got there first.”
President Putin stated the vaccine, which was developed at the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow, was safe and even one of daughters had received it.
The Russian leader said the so-called Sputnik V “works rather effectively” adding: “As far as I know, this morning for the first time in the world a vaccine against the novel coronavirus infection was registered.
“I know that it works rather effectively, forms a stable immunity, and, I repeat, it passed all the necessary inspections.”
However, the director of the Vaccine Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Professor Beate Kampmann, questioned the science, ethics and safety ramifications of the newly-announced vaccine.
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Ms Kampmann said: “The announcement today appears to be driven by politics rather than science.
“Having a vaccine tested in the early phases on a total of 38 volunteers, not randomised or placebo-controlled, that is not the international standard to get a vaccine.”
She continued: “It might be a brilliant vaccine in the end.
“But unless it is tested for safety and efficacy, according to those kinds of standards of the data shared we are not in any position to assess whether it can make any kind of contribution to the pandemic.”