Despite the American categorical refutation of the Kremlin’s allegations regarding the United States’ involvement in the manufacture of biological weapons, this fake news continues to spread around the world with the support of the Chinese media, according to what was reported by the newspaper “”The New York Times“American.
Some of the rumors being launched by Moscow claimed that the United States produced secret biological weapons in Ukraine, or trained birds to carry disease vectors to Russia, or produced Covid-19 in a laboratory, and even manufactured the “monkeypox” virus in laboratories in Nigeria.
Among the most prominent of these allegations, those made by Moscow during the war it launched once morest Ukraine six months ago, and that the Washington administration includes secret laboratories in Ukraine to spread chaos around the world.
The United States and others denied the allegations, calling them “preposterous”. Although Moscow did not provide any arguments to substantiate its allegations, this news continued to circulate “especially with the support of Chinese diplomats and media”, which contributed to creating a wave of conspiracy theories online, according to the newspaper.
For the first time in more than a quarter of a century, Russia officially called this week from Geneva for the activation of hearings for what it called “violations” of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Biological Weapons, which, since 1975, has prohibited the development and use of toxic biological materials and pathogens as weapons.
“This is Pandora’s Military Biological Box, which the United States has opened and filled more than once,” Irina Yarovai, deputy speaker of the Russian parliament, the Duma, said last month.
It is unlikely that any Western official or experts would present Russia, during the week-long meeting, with facts to support the accusations, according to the “New York Times”.
And although Russian officials have repeatedly promised to provide evidence of secret weapons research in Ukraine, they have not yet done so.
For its part, the US State Department, in response to questions regarding these allegations, said that Russia’s accusations are aimed at justifying and diverting attention from its unjustified invasion of Ukraine.
Misrepresentation of the truth of scientific research
Like many Russian allegations, Moscow is trying to distort some facts. Before the war on Ukraine, Russia warned that the United States had approached its neighbors in order to conduct research and defense industries, built by some countries that were affiliated with the former Soviet Union.
The American newspaper points out that the United States has already pumped millions of dollars into countries, including Ukraine, under the “Biological Threat Reduction” program, but it mainly aims to get rid of the remnants of the chemical, biological and nuclear weapons known to the Soviet era following the Cold War.
The newspaper adds that the United States has expanded support for biological research laboratories that are “essential” to monitor disease and prevent its spread.
Russia has made false accusations once morest a US-funded research center in Georgia, a former part of the Soviet Union, which Russia invaded in 2008.
Russia is expected to present its argument on Monday before the 184 countries that have signed the Biological Weapons Convention, and the United States and Ukraine will be able to respond to the allegations later next week.
The “Russian strategy” of spreading false claims dates back to the Cold War period. In 1983, the Soviet Union’s KGB intelligence service planted an anonymous letter in an Indian newspaper claiming that the CIA had manufactured the virus that causes HIV/AIDS in an experiment. in Fort Detrick, Maryland, according to documents in the digital archives of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Although this hypothesis is disproved, a large percentage of people believe that the United States is actually responsible for this.
reported study Conducted by the “RAND” Research Center, “Today’s Russian propaganda model has been an adaptation to exploit available technology and media in ways unimaginable during the Cold War.”
And experts in the field of banning biological weapons warned during their interview with “The New York Times” of the consequences of these rumors and official positions on the work of research centers.
Philippa Lentuz, an expert in threats and biosecurity at King’s College London, told the newspaper: “The message is focused on these laboratories, and this will lose confidence in that infrastructure and the work that is being done in it… It will reduce the world’s biosecurity and efforts to achieve this security, and therefore They (the accusations) have consequences.”
