Putin orders HPV vaccine added to Russia’s national schedule by 2027

Russia is to add HPV protection to its national vaccination schedule using a domestically produced vaccine, despite delays to other planned immunisations.

Russia is set to broaden its national vaccination schedule to include protection against human papillomavirus, with Vladimir Putin ordering the health ministry to make the change using a domestically produced vaccine. According to the Kremlin, the instruction must be carried out by June 2027, with an implementation report due by 1 June 2027. The move signals a further effort to expand the country’s preventive immunisation programme while keeping vaccine production inside Russia.

The directive comes against a backdrop of repeated delays to the rollout of several vaccines in the national calendar. Russian officials had already discussed postponing HPV, chickenpox, meningococcal and rotavirus vaccinations, citing the need for extra funding and for full-cycle production to be established at home. In January 2026, government reporting said the timetable for adding those vaccines had been pushed back, reflecting the strain of aligning public-health planning with industrial capacity.

Putin’s instruction was part of a wider package issued after a meeting of the Council on the Implementation of State Demographic and Family Policy, according to the independent outlet The Insider. That list also included a call for proposals to change search engine results linked to abortion topics. The same set of directions showed that the HPV vaccine question is being treated not just as a health issue, but as part of a broader demographic and social policy agenda.

The HPV decision is likely to draw attention because cervical and other HPV-related cancers are among the best-known preventable diseases targeted by vaccination programmes worldwide. In Moscow, the emphasis on a Russian-made vaccine suggests the government wants the expansion to reinforce domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing as well as public health. For now, the Kremlin’s deadline leaves more than a year before officials must show whether the promise of a wider immunisation schedule can be matched by supply, funding and delivery.