A Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman has labeled a French minister's call for European Union member countries to not register the Russian and Chinese COVID-19 vaccines as "unacceptable" and "neo-Nazism," according to RT.

RT reported that Clement Beaune, French minister of European affairs, told TV channel France 2 on Thursday that those who were inoculated with Russian or Chinese COVID-19 vaccines should be shut out of the bloc, and called on other EU countries to "be cautious" and not accept jabs from Russia and China.

"Unacceptable statements," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zkharova wrote on Telegram. "It is a hybrid of racism, imperial hegemony, and neo-Nazism: entire peoples are denied equal rights and opportunities, in contrary to laws, ethics, and morality, pushing the world to confrontation at a time when it is being severely tested by the pandemic." 

The European Union has proposed to Russia that they discuss the potential joint recognition of their COVID-19 vaccination certificates, TASS news agency cited the bloc's ambassador to Moscow as saying on Thursday.

British scientific journal Nature published an article stating that Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine had been proven to be safe and effective.

Two doses of the CoronaVac vaccine developed by Chinese drug maker Sinovac offer 83.5 percent protection against symptomatic COVID-19, according to a new study published in the top medical journal The Lancet on Thursday.

The World Health Organization has approved the emergency use of two Chinese vaccines made separately by Sinovac and Sinopharm. 

Two EU member states, Hungary and Slovakia, have already included the Russian vaccine in their vaccination programs.