The kremlin’s systematic attempts to cram into the world information space topics about allegedly American military biological laboratories in Ukraine.
russia is maintaining not only military aggression but also waging a war on the information front. Back in April 2020, pro-russian media launched an information campaign against the so-called American biolaboratories in Ukraine.
At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic any mention of the possible artificial origin of the disease was sparkling keen interest from all around the world. At this point the kremlin media began to produce messages about fifteen laboratories controlled by the United States at Ukraine’s territory. According to russian propagandists, biological laboratories in Ukraine could be the source of the latest coronavirus infection, from which people suffered worldwide. At the same time, they claimed that in 2019 the coronavirus had been transported to Europe from Ukraine.
Once again, the American biolaboratories plot theory was brought back to life in March 2022 during the russian invasion of Ukraine, when russian officials began to claim that medical facilities in Ukraine were “secret US-funded biolabs” that were purportedly developing biological weapons.
Regardless of the propaganda noise, russia is the country with the ability to create biological weapons. Indeed, it is known that in the towns of Pushchino, Serpukhovo, and Obolensk, near moscow, well-equipped biolaboratories were set up in soviet times. Also, the Novosibirsk state research center for virology “Vector”, founded in 1974, was engaged in the development of bacteriological and virological weapons.
This thesis can be confirmed by the fact that in 1991 a unit of the US Department of Defense cooperated with the countries of the former soviet union to secure the remaining weapons of mass destruction and prevent the spread of technologies and pathogens that could be used to design biological weaponry.
The work of laboratories involved in countering possible biological terrorism is not secret and has long been conducted by Washington and Kyiv together. However, similar laboratories are operating in Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, and even Tajikistan, though russia seems to ignore their existence.
It should also be noted here that since the mid-2000s Ukrainian science has been supported by EU and US grant programs. During the entire period of cooperation, the United States has invested about $200 million to develop 46 laboratories and medical institutions in Ukraine.
As part of Ukraine’s healthcare reform, the country’s Sanitary and Epidemiological Service was reorganized into the Centers for the Prevention of Diseases, with financing from the US and other major aid agencies.
For russian propaganda, this fact was enough to present such centers as American military biological laboratories. At the same time, today the UN does not exclude that russia’s statements about biological laboratories may be one of the probable phases of the kremlin’s approaches for possible biological or chemical operations on the territory of Ukraine.
Fact worth mentioning is that all laboratories in Ukraine were created for regular research and were provided with low-power equipment, which is not sufficient for a biological weapons production center. Furthermore, the creation of such military-oriented facilities, especially on a large scale, cannot go unnoticed by the intelligence services. As to versions about “war pigeons” or a pandemic caused by a consumed bat are only fantastic stories of propagandists.
#infoterror
