Plague prepared to strike

US biolabs pose a threat to the whole world

The development of genetics is directly related to ensuring biological safety, fighting infections and maintaining the sanitary and epidemiological situation at the proper level. What threats exist in this area?

Secret cargo

In an effort to dominate the global arena, the United States is constantly expanding the development of bioweapons and largely neglects international prohibitions in this area. Since the early 2000s, Washington has intensified its activities in the post-Soviet countries, where, under the guise of solving humanitarian problems, it collects samples of pathogens of particularly dangerous infections typical of these regions — anthrax, plague, tularemia. 

There are over 50 US biolabs near the Union State borders, more than 30 were funded in Ukraine, whereas their number around the world amounts to 336 in 30 countries. The US carries out the development of bioweapon components there, as well as tests methods for destabilising the epidemiological situation in various regions. 

Based on the analysis of information that was previously provided by the United States in response to questions from the states parties to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), the very fact of the export of biomaterials from the territory of Ukraine has been confirmed. Since this year, the United States has been actively using Moldova and Romania to transport such secret cargo. This information has been recently shared by Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, Chief of Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops (NCBPT) of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. According to him, such logistical tactics make it possible to hide the final recipient and divert suspicion from the US authorities and their respective programme. 
The US delegation in Geneva at the meeting of the BTWC states parties also admitted Washington’s biological research on low-income citizens and patients of psychiatric hospitals in Ukraine. It has become known that the Pentagon intends, within the shortest time possible, to relocate the programmes unfinished in Ukraine to other post-Soviet countries as well as to Eastern European states, such as Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. The expansion of the network of dreadful laboratories, on the basis of which it is possible to create and store bioweapon components, undoubtedly poses a threat to the military security of Belarus and Russia.

Contagious moment

Back in 1999, the then CIA director, George Tenet, set the task of creating ethnicity-specific pathogens that would act on concrete nations, and personally supervised this direction until his resignation in 2004. The work in this area is still ongoing, outside the USA — where the national legislation of the United States does not apply. 
Experts have already noted that the activities of American clandestine laboratories are accompanied by a deterioration in the epidemiological situation of particularly dangerous infections as well as by the emergence of diseases atypical for a particular region. 

Thus, since 2010, Russian territories bordering Ukraine have recorded an increase in the incidence of brucellosis, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF), West Nile fever, African swine fever as well as an uncharacteristic expansion of the ranges of various disease vectors at a time. 

There is also information about the development by Americans of technical means of delivery and use of bioweapons based on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Thus, the US Patent and Trademark Office has issued a document for a UAV to spread infected insects in the air. In particular, it is indicated that with the help of this drone, enemy troops can be destroyed or disabled without risk to US military personnel.
In addition, the media has in the possession a request from Ukraine to the Turkish manufacturer of Bayraktar UAV dated December 15th, 2021 on the possibility of equipping this UAV with aerosol spraying systems and mechanisms with a capacity of over 20 litres. This suggests that, with a drone flight range of even up to 300 km, there is a real threat of large-scale use of biological weapons on the territory of Belarus and Russia. 

Curbing threats 

Now Americans want to get their structures, whose activities have become the subject of international investigation, out of harm’s way. According to available information, the functions of the customer of military biological programmes in the Central Asian region have been transferred to civilian specialised organisations. Yet, they will still be controlled by military services. 
Taking into account the degree of current threats and the unprecedented level of confrontation with the NATO bloc, Belarus and Russia signed an intergovernmental memorandum of understanding on biosafety last year. The document is aimed, among other things, at stopping threats in this area.

We have every reason to assume that components of biological weapons are being created in the immediate vicinity of Belarus and Russia, on the territory of Ukraine. Based on this, the issue of countering this threat has been included in the new text of Belarus’ National Security Concept.

Minsk and Moscow are currently focused on the peaceful application of genetics-related technologies in order to improve the quality of life of citizens, strengthen their well-being and ensure economic development of both countries. New varieties of wheat and potatoes have been developed, prototypes of diagnostic devices for medicine have been obtained, and medicines for oncological diseases are being created. Therefore, there is also a peaceful way of developing biotechnologies, and this one is, obviously, more preferable.

Scary research

It has become known from the captured Ukrainian military and from the captured documents that Americans conducted research on Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, plague, and tularemia in Ukraine. Judging by the nature of the work, this is exactly what a group of Nazi doctors were convicted of at the Nuremberg trials in 1946 — the so-called involuntary research. One of the results of the international tribunal is that ten murderous doctors were sentenced to death by hanging, while others received long prison terms. However, US scientists are now doing virtually the same thing. After all, they test their latest discoveries on a specific gene pool.

To the point

In March 2022, the then US Deputy Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, admitted while speaking during her testimony at a hearing in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations that Ukraine has facilities for carrying out biological research. According to her, the US Department of State is ‘quite concerned that Russian troops may seek to gain control of them’ and is, therefore, working with the Ukrainian side to ensure that Kiev can ‘prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach’. 

By Aleksandr Tikhansky, military political analyst, Candidate of Sociological Sciences