Briefing by Chief of Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov on U.S. military-biological activity
The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation continues to analyse the military and biological activities of the United States of America in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world.
During the last briefing, the Russian side drew attention to the relocation of unfinished 'Ukrainian' projects to the territory of other countries. It was shown that African states — Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, and Uganda — have fallen into the zone of the United States' increased interest. The U.S. government customers are the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), the National Security Agency, and the U.S. Department of State.
Today, using Nigeria as an example, the Russian side would like to show that the stated objectives of public health projects are not in line with reality.
Thus, the U.S. Department of Defense claims that biological projects in Nigeria are aimed at combating HIV and AIDS. However, the effectiveness of this programme raises serious concerns. Despite annual funding increases totalling about $100,000,000, the HIV incidence rate has remained virtually unchanged and corresponds with 2009 figures. The mortality among HIV-infected people also shows unfavourable progression.
However, the number of Nigerian citizens receiving antiviral therapy with products of Gilead Pharmaceutics company has steadily increased over the funding period reaching 60% of the total number of patients. It should be noted that the aforementioned pharmaceutical company is affiliated with the Pentagon and tested its drugs on Ukrainian citizens.
It suggests that American pharmaceuticals, even with the documented increase in consumption in Nigeria, do not have a tangible therapeutic impact, and Nigerian citizens are being exploited as a ‘free clinical resource’.
Thus, under the cover of 'public health' issues on the African continent, the Pentagon solves its own tasks: it monitors the biological situation, collects and exports samples of infectious agents and their vectors.
This activity continues to the present day. In August 2022, DTRA signed a three-year contract with RTI International, a U.S.-based non-profit organisation aimed at surveillance of infectious disease threats in Nigeria.
It has already been repeatedly noted that one of the Pentagon's tasks is so-called 'biological espionage', i.e. analysing the epidemic situation along the borders of geopolitical adversaries and in the expected regions of military contingent deployment.
The Russian side has data confirming that the Pentagon set tasks to monitor the biological situation in the territories of Iraq and Afghanistan bordering China, Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.
The documents emphasise the need for Pentagon contractors' employees to be brought to leading positions, and field work was supposed to be assigned to those local specialists who are able to interact with the relevant ministries. At the same time, it is recommended to minimise the evidence linking to the contractor by making short trips to Afghanistan and Iraq from the Dubai office only if necessary.
In order to avoid accusations against the Pentagon, some projects were implemented under the cover of the U.S. Department of State. We would like to draw your attention to the U.S. Department of State’s research programme in Afghanistan: it included studying the pathogens of especially dangerous and economically significant diseases, i.e. tularemia, anthrax, foot-and-mouth disease, collecting biological samples on the territory of the country, and transporting them to the United States.
And now the attention must be drawn to the involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency in U.S. military biological programmes. Following the established pattern, the work was done through contractors: Johns Hopkins University and RAND nonprofit organisation, which had previously been involved in dual-use projects.
It should be recalled that on 18 October 2019, two months before the first official reports about a new coronavirus infection, Johns Hopkins University held an exercise called Event 201 in New York City. The event practised actions in an epidemic of a previously unknown coronavirus, which, according to the scenario, was transferred from bats to humans via an intermediate host.
It has already been noted that the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic according to this scenario, as well as the high readiness of U.S. pharmaceutical companies to produce 'anti-COVID' drugs raise concerns about the deliberate nature of the incident and the United States’ participation in it.
The involvement of RAND, a nonprofit organisation that specialises in political issues, in the CIA biological projects also raises concerns. This organisation used artificial intelligence capabilities to plan large-scale biological attacks.
For example, the RAND Report that is in our possession indicates that the use of such approaches '...could assist in planning and implementing a biological attack...'. It is noted that the intelligent system is capable of picking the most appropriate type of biological formulation storage, selecting methods of masking, delivering, and applying pathogenic materials.
It is obvious that such research is inconsistent with Washington's commitment to nonproliferation of biological weapons.
The documents available attest to an ongoing programme in the United States focused on the production of biological weapons.
At the same time, the U.S. administration seeks to expand the programme’s scale. On 23 March 2023, a new U.S. Biomanufacturing Strategy developed by the U.S. Department of Defense was approved. The document sets long-term goals for the development of biotechnology and the search for its military applications.
The stated goal is to '...secure technological sovereignty in bioproduction and outpace strategic rivals...'.
In October 2023, the U.S. Department of Defense announced the launch of a programme to train professionals to implement the Biomanufacturing Strategy (the BioFab Program). Former military personnel with a background in biomedical warfare will be prioritised as candidates.
The project is supervised by the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and the technological base for the training will be provided by nine major manufacturing companies that specialise in genomic research, bioinformatics, cell and tissue culture work.
The training programme consists of a two-month pre-course and an industrial internship that '...immerses participants in real-world biofabrication experiences...'. As noted in the official press release dated 11 October 2023 '...U.S. Department of Defense activities will focus on revitalising U.S.’s domestic manufacturing capabilities...that enhance America's strategic competitiveness while enabling the military of tomorrow...'.
These statements, when coupled with the use of a cutting-edge technological base and the involvement of specialists with dual-use research experience, may indicate the U.S. attempts to recreate technologies for large-scale production of biological formulations as part of an offensive biological programme.
We have already noted that in order to reduce the political damage from Russia’s revelations, Washington was forced to limit its biological-military presence in Ukraine. Some unfinished projects were relocated to Eastern Europe, Africa, and South-East Asia.
At the same time, the United States maintains a keen interest in conducting research in Ukraine. The fact of the implementation of U.S. 'scientific programmes' in Ukraine was confirmed in January 2023 by John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council.
Moreover, the U.S. administration retains control over some Ukrainian biosites, expecting to resume their activities once the conflict is over. In December 2022, in a letter to Ukrainian contractors, the U.S.-based CH2M Hill confirmed its intention to continue collecting dangerous pathogens in the western regions of the country while reducing the number of laboratories storing such specimens. Other tasks include control of sanitary and epidemiological situation and implementation of hardware and software complexes for biorisk management. What is more, Ukrainian organisations are required to submit reports on their work in these areas.
In 2023, the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU), which is the main intermediary that distributes the Pentagon grants, resumes operations in Kiev. With funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development and mediation by the STCU, a biological threat response training was conducted at Danila Halytsky Lviv National Medical University from August to September 2023.
According to the Russian Defence Ministry, the training was attended by representatives of Ukrainian state authorities, including the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the National Police, as well as employees of Western non-profit organisations.
It is worth noting that the avian influenza virus is currently considered the most extensively studied microorganism in high-isolation laboratories. It remains the subject of intense media attention, has the potential for interspecies transfer, and is highly lethal to humans. It is no coincidence that the use of this particular pathogenic biological agent was incorporated into the training scenario.
The intention of the exercise is as follows: There have been reports of infectious disease cases occurring in the Nikolayev region, Ukraine. The samples are collected and analysed. It concludes that the incident is 'highly likely' a result of a biosabotage by the Russian Federation. The information about the outbreak is being covered by the media, primarily Western media, to draw attention to the situation, and medical workers are taking to the streets with placards to hold Russia accountable for violating its convention obligations.
An investigation is subsequently initiated using the UN Secretary-General's mechanism to reassure the international community that the data is transparent and unbiased.
The scenario results in accusing Russia of non-compliance with the BWC requirements, discrediting it in the international arena and imposing additional sanctions on Russia.
We complete the list of figures in the Ukrainian military- biological dossier with participants of the training, which took place in Lviv. Among them are:
Filippa Lentzos, member of the UK Biosecurity Steering Board, participated in the training as moderator. Over the past few years, Lentzos has been active in publishing materials aimed at discrediting the Russian Federation on biosecurity issues in the international arena.
Gemma Bowsher, from the Department of War Studies at King's College London, specialises in intelligence analysis and media disinformation techniques.
Oksana Kucheryava, Head of Communications at the Public Health Centre of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, manages projects for governmental organisations in Ukraine and the USA and is responsible for media planning. Her involvement in the training indicates that the issues related to the dissemination of misinformation in the media were practised 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 highly dangerous pathogens, was present at the past event. Earlier we noted that Demchishina acted as an intermediary in interaction with Pentagon contractors Black & Veatch and Metabiota, and supervised the implementation of DTRA projects in Ukraine.
We would like to note the presence of representatives of the Security Service of Ukraine 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 Ukrainian security services to carry out provocations with biological weapons 'under someone else's flag'.
We will continue to analyse incoming documents and keep you informed.