US Moves Biological Dual-Use Research to Africa, Russian MoD Reveals

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Biohazard
, - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 09.10.2023
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In February 2022, the Russian Defense Ministry discovered the existence of 30 US-funded military biological laboratories in Ukraine, which, according to the ministry, constitute only a small part of a global network of over 300 similar facilities.
Washington was "forced" to move its biological dual-use research to Africa due to "Russian efforts to expose illegal U.S. military biological activities and the deteriorating epidemic situation near biosites in the European region," Igor Kirillov, the Chief of Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops of the Russian Armed Forces revealed on Monday.
"The documents at our disposal confirm the activities of key Pentagon contractors on the African continent — in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Uganda and South Africa. Customers on the part of the U.S. Government are DTRA, the National Security Agency and the U.S. Department of State," Kirillov announced.
The MoD officials has also noted that "many states got in the sphere of U.S. military interests," which happened "under the pretence of support to develop national healthcare systems efforts on countering bioterrorism and proliferation of biological weapon threats."
"We previously spoke about unauthorised sample gathering by employees of Metabiota, a key Pentagon contractor, during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The company's nontransparent practices immediately raised questions from the World Health Organisation. As a result of the illegal export of samples, live samples of the Ebola virus ended up at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infections," Igor Kirillov said.
In February 2022, the Russian Defense Ministry discovered the existence of 30 US-funded military biological laboratories in Ukraine.
According to Moscow, Washington has spent over $200 million to develop biological weapons at the facilities. Russia also said that the labs discovered in Ukraine constituted only a small part of a global network of over 300 similar facilities. The United States denies the Russian accusations.
In April 2023, Russia's upper house unanimously approved the report of the parliamentary commission, supported by the lower house, to investigate the activities of the US biolaboratories in Ukraine.
Deputy speaker of the Russian upper house Konstantin Kosachev then said there were at least 30 US biolaboratories on the territory of Ukraine, adding that the Pentagon was the main "customer" of the bio-research, which may speak about the military nature of the research. Kosachev noted that the establishment of US biolaboratories in Ukraine indicates possible plans of the US to use its military against Russia.
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