The announcement that Russia is forging ahead with its locally developed vaccine for Covid-19 has not only led to international concerns over its safety, but also generated a great deal of both misinformation and humour on social media platforms.

We’ve been looking at some of the more widely shared posts.

Putin the superhero
There have been many satirical memes about Russia’s announcement, shared in a range of languages. Some show Russian President Vladimir Putin as a superhero, such as Spiderman or Ironman, saving the world.

One of the most popular being shared portrays Mr Putin riding a bear with a giant syringe strapped to his back.

A version of this meme even claims, incorrectly, that it was shared by Mr Putin himself. Another widely shared post celebrating Russia’s vaccine announcement appeared on a Facebook page supporting Mr Putin, and has been shared more than 200,000 times.

It’s not an official account of the Russian president, who is believed to shun social media.

But many of the tens of thousands of people commenting in numerous languages on the post clearly believe it is.