TSAMTO, October 31. Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian Armed Forces Defense Forces, held a briefing on the issue of military biological activities of the United States. The transcript of the briefing is given below in the presentation of the Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
"The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation continues to analyze the military biological activities of the United States in Ukraine and other countries.
During the last briefing, we drew your attention to the transfer of unfinished "Ukrainian" projects to the territory of other states. It was shown that African States – the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Uganda – fell into the zone of increased interest of the United States. At the same time, the US government's customers are the Department of Defense Threat Reduction Office (DITRA), the National Security Agency and the US State Department.
Today, using the example of Nigeria, we would like to show that the stated goals of projects aimed at the development of public health do not correspond to reality.
Thus, the US military department claims that biological projects in Nigeria are aimed at combating HIV/AIDS. However, the effectiveness of this program raises serious questions. Despite the annual increase in funding, amounting to a total of about $ 100 million, the HIV incidence rate has not changed much and currently corresponds to the values of 2009. The percentage of mortality among HIV-infected people also shows a negative trend.
At the same time, the number of Nigerian citizens who received antiviral therapy with Gilead drugs has steadily increased over the entire funding period and reached 60% of the total number of patients. Let me remind you that this pharmaceutical company is affiliated with the Pentagon and has been testing its drugs on citizens of Ukraine.
This allows us to conclude that American pharmaceuticals, the steady growth of consumption of which in Nigeria is recorded by statistical data, do not have a real therapeutic effect, and Nigerian citizens are used as a "free clinical base".
Thus, under the guise of the problems of "public health" on the African continent, the Pentagon solves its own tasks: it monitors the biological situation, collects and exports samples of pathogens of infectious diseases and their vectors.
This activity continues at the present time. In August 2022, DITRA signed a three-year contract with the American non-profit organization Air-I International, whose goal is to monitor the threats of infectious diseases in Nigeria.
We have repeatedly noted that one of the tasks of the Pentagon is the so–called "biological espionage" - the analysis of the epidemiological situation along the borders of geopolitical opponents and in the proposed areas of deployment of military contingents.
We have materials at our disposal confirming that the US military department was tasked with monitoring the biological situation in the territories of Iraq and Afghanistan bordering with China, Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.
The documents emphasize the need to attract employees of Pentagon contractors to senior positions, and field work was supposed to be entrusted to local specialists who are necessarily able to interact with the necessary ministries. At the same time, it is recommended to limit the traces leading to the contractor – to carry out short trips to Afghanistan and Iraq from the office in Dubai only if necessary.
In order to avoid accusations against the US military, some projects were implemented under the cover of the US State Department. Pay attention to the State Department's research program in Afghanistan – it involved the study of pathogens of particularly dangerous and economically significant diseases – tularemia, anthrax, foot-and-mouth disease, as well as the selection of biological samples on the territory of the country and their transportation to the United States.
And now I would like to focus your attention on the participation of the Central Intelligence Agency in the implementation of US military biological programs. According to the already traditional scheme, the work was carried out through contractors – Johns Hopkins University and the non-profit organization Rand, which had previously been involved in the implementation of dual-use projects.
Let me remind you that on October 18, 2019, two months before the first official reports of the appearance of a new coronavirus infection, Johns Hopkins University held an Event-201 exercise in New York. During this event, actions were practiced in the conditions of an epidemic of a previously unknown coronavirus, which, according to legend, was transferred from bats to humans through an intermediate host.
We have repeatedly noted that the development of the COVID-19 pandemic according to this scenario, as well as the high readiness of American pharmaceutical companies to produce "anti-covid" drugs raise questions about the deliberate nature of the incident and the involvement of the United States in it.
Participation in the biological projects of the CIA of the non-profit organization "Rand", which specializes in political issues, also raises a number of questions.
This organization used the capabilities of artificial intelligence to plan large-scale biological attacks.
So, in the Rand report, which is available to us, it is indicated that the use of such approaches "... could help in planning and implementing a biological attack ...". At the same time, it is noted that the intelligent system is able to choose the most suitable type of storage of biological formulations, choose methods of masking, delivery and application of pathogenic materials.
It is quite obvious that such studies do not comply with Washington's obligations on the non-proliferation of biological weapons.
These documents indicate the ongoing biological weapons program in the United States.
At the same time, the American administration is seeking to expand its scope. On March 23, 2023, a new US strategy in the field of bio-production, developed by the Ministry of Defense, was approved. The document defines long-term goals for the development of biotechnologies and the search for their military applications.
The stated goal is "... to ensure technological sovereignty in the field of bio–production and to overtake strategic rivals ...".
In October 2023, the US Department of Defense announced the launch of a training program for specialists to implement the bio-production strategy (BioFab program). Former employees of military departments with experience in military biological activities will be considered as candidates on a priority basis.
The project is supervised by the Deputy Minister of Defense for Research and Development, and the technological base for training will be provided by nine large manufacturing enterprises that specialize in genomic research, bioinformatics, and work with cell and tissue cultures.
The training program consists of a two-month preliminary course and industrial practice, which: "... gives participants the opportunity to take part in real experiments on the manufacture of biomaterials ...". At the same time, as noted in the official press release of October 11, "... the activities of the Ministry of Defense will be aimed at reviving the domestic production potential of the United States ..., which increases America's strategic competitiveness and allows creating the armed forces of the future ...".
Such formulations, combined with the use of a high-performance technological base and the involvement of specialists with dual-use research experience, may indicate attempts by the United States to recreate technologies for large-scale production of biological formulations as part of an offensive biological program.
We have already noted that in order to reduce the political damage from the revelations from the Russian side, Washington was forced to limit its military-biological presence in Ukraine. Some of the unfinished projects were transferred to the countries of Eastern Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia.
At the same time, the United States maintains an increased interest in conducting research on Ukrainian territory. The fact of the implementation of American "scientific programs" in Ukraine in January 2023 was confirmed by the coordinator of strategic communications of the US National Security Council, John Kirby.
Moreover, the US administration retains control over some Ukrainian bio-facilities, hoping to resume their activities after the end of the conflict. In December 2022, the American company C-H-Tu-M-Hill, in a letter to Ukrainian contractors, confirmed its intention to continue collecting dangerous pathogens in the western regions of the country while reducing the number of laboratories storing such collections. Among other tasks is the control of the sanitary and epidemiological situation and the introduction of hardware and software systems for biorisk management. At the same time, Ukrainian organizations are required to submit reports on the work done in these areas.
In 2023, the activity of the Ukrainian Scientific and Technological Center (UNTC), which is the main intermediary distributing Pentagon grants, was resumed in Kiev. With the financial support of the US Agency for International Development and the mediation of the UNTC, a training on responding to biological threats was conducted on the basis of the Galitsky National Medical University in Lviv in the period from August to September 2023.
According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the training was attended by representatives of state authorities of Ukraine, including the SBU and the national police, as well as employees of Western non-profit organizations.
Let me remind you that recently the most studied microorganism in laboratories with a high level of isolation is the virus of pathogenic avian influenza. It remains the object of close attention of the media, has the possibility of interspecific transition and high mortality for humans. It is no coincidence that the use of this pathogenic biological agent was included in the training scenario.
The idea of the exercise is as follows – in the Mykolaiv region of Ukraine, the occurrence of cases of an infectious disease is recorded. Sampling and analysis of samples is carried out. As a result, it is concluded that "with a high degree of probability" the incident is the result of biodiversion on the part of the Russian Federation. Information about the outbreak is covered by the media, primarily Western ones, to draw attention to the situation, medical workers are brought to the streets with posters about holding Russia accountable for violating convention obligations.
In the future, an investigation will be initiated using the mechanism of the UN Secretary General to convince the international community of the transparency and impartiality of the data.
The result of the scenario is the accusation of Russia for non-compliance with the requirements of the BTWC, its discrediting in the international arena and the introduction of additional sanctions restrictions against our country.
We supplement the list of persons involved in the Ukrainian military-biological dossier with participants of the training that took place in Lviv. Among them:
Philippa Lenzos, a member of the UK Biosafety Governing Council, took part in the training as a moderator. Over the past years, Lentsos has been actively publishing activities aimed at discrediting the Russian Federation on biosafety issues in the international arena.
Gemma Bowsher, a member of the Faculty of Military Studies at King's College London, specializes in intelligence analysis and disinformation technologies in the media.
Oksana Kucheryava, Head of the Communications Department of the Public Health Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, is engaged in project management for government organizations of Ukraine and the United States, is responsible for media planning. Her involvement in the training indicates that issues related to the dissemination of disinformation in the media are being worked out within the framework of the event.
It was also found that Irina Demchishina, the head of the reference laboratory for the diagnosis of viral and especially dangerous pathogens, was present at the last event. Earlier we noted that Demchishina acted as an intermediary in cooperation with Pentagon contractors – Black & Veatch and Metabiota companies, supervised the implementation of DITRA projects in Ukraine.
Separately, I would like to note the presence of representatives of the SBU and the National Police of Ukraine at the training. This is due not only to the closed nature of the event, but also to the possible targeting of the Ukrainian special services to carry out provocations with biological weapons "under a false flag."
We are continuing to analyze the incoming documents and will keep you informed."
