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
Materials of briefing by Chief of Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
When link above works again? I will download the PDF from source and upload to my server to keep another copy safer…
During 2023, the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation carried out a detailed analysis of U.S. military biological activities in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world, which provided a more complete understanding of the military biology programmes they are implementing.
Based on the analysis of documents obtained during the special military operation, the structure of the system set up by the U.S. administration for global biological risk management became clear. It is made up of government agencies and private contracting companies, including the so-called ‘Big Pharma’ companies.
Through the U.S. executive branch, a legislative framework is being formed to fund military biological research directly from the federal budget. Under state guarantees, funds are attracted from non-governmental organisations controlled by the Democratic Party leadership, including the investment funds of the Clintons, Rockefellers, Soros, and Biden.
The main contractors of the American military department are Metabiota, Black & Veatch, and CH2M HILL, which are entrusted with the construction of biobased facilities, supplying equipment for the Pentagon’s biolaboratories around the world. The work is being coordinated by the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).
The activities of this system are aimed at studying pathogens of especially dangerous infections in the regions of the world strategically important for the USA, controlling the biological situation and achieving superiority in the field of bioproduction. One of the priority tasks is the so-called ‘biological espionage’ – analysing the epidemiological situation along the borders of geopolitical adversaries and in the proposed areas of deployment of military contingents.
Materials were received confirming that the American military department had set tasks to monitor the biological situation in the Middle East and Central Asia, territories bordering China, Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.
Over the past year, the Pentagon has developed and adopted a number of conceptual documents that envisage the expansion of the foreign network of U.S.-controlled biolaboratories and the continuation of military biological research beyond national jurisdiction.
In addition, administrative and technical structures (the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, and the State Department’s Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy) were created in 2023 with the primary mission of implementing policies for further biological-military expansion.
While the stated goals are to monitor infectious diseases and assist developing countries, the example of Ukraine has made it clear how the U.S. is building up its biological-military capabilities.
By the time the special military operation was started, the Pentagon was implementing UP and TAP projects in the country aimed at studying pathogens of particularly dangerous and economically significant diseases (tularemia, anthrax, hantavirus infections).
The research was conducted in three main areas. These include monitoring the biological situation, collecting endemic strains, and studying the susceptibility of the local population.
In 2023, the EU countries actively promoted an initiative to deploy a network of centres of ‘excellence’ in the field of NBC protection, which envisages the deployment of biolaboratories on the territory of the former USSR. The prospective partners are highly recommended ‘…not to advertise this initiative due to its extreme sensitivity for the Russian Federation…’ At the same time, it is stressed that the Central Asian countries ‘…are already benefiting from technical cooperation…’
The distribution of funds on the territory of the post-Soviet space is carried out, including through a system of grants through the Ukrainian and International Science and Technology Centres. I would like to draw attention to the names of individual projects financed in the states of the Transcaucasia and Central Asia.
Project 2410 ‘Assessment of natural resistance of brucellosis pathogen in domestic and wild animals’ is aimed at studying the possibility of transmission of this pathogen to humans. The research was carried out with the participation of specialists from the University of Florida.
The 2513 Project studies risk factors and molecular properties of resistance in the external environment of virulent enterobacteriaceae.
The research aims to isolate strains that are immune to all known classes of antibiotics.
The 2545 Project involves modelling evolutionary changes in selected viruses highly pathogenic to humans. The research was supported by the UK’s national research and innovation agency.
Taking advantage of gaps in international legislation, the United States administration is consistently building up its biological-military capabilities in various regions of the world.
Of particular concern is the fact that the United States has blocked any international initiatives to verify the Biological Weapons Convention. This eliminates the ability to inspect laboratory operations both inside and outside the United States. The 2023 BWC events once again confirmed Washington’s fundamental reluctance to resume negotiations on a legally binding verification mechanism.
In the course of the events held at the BWC, the Russian Federation raised more than 20 questions concerning violations by Kiev and Washington of the requirements of the Convention. It concerned the nomenclature and quantities of pathogenic microorganisms studied under the Biological Threat Reduction Program, the conduct of research on Ukrainian servicemen and mentally ill persons, and the concealment by Ukraine and the United States of the facts of cooperation in the military-biological sphere in international reporting. None of the questions have received substantive answers to date.
At the same time, the initiatives promoted by the United States were aimed at replacing the provisions of the Convention and other norms of international law with its own ‘rules’, which were developed in U.S. interests, supported by the collective West and imposed on third countries for implementation.
This can be traced in the work at other international platforms, when Western delegations pushed through decision-making only on issues of interest to them, without regard for the priorities of other states. At the same time, attention is deliberately shifted to the consideration of secondary issues not directly related to the problems of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, for example, such as the creation of all kinds of databases, ensuring gender equality, participation in BWC activities by youth organisations, etc.
To mitigate the political damage from the Russian revelations, the U.S. administration is trying to put pressure on its allies and developing countries. This is due, in particular, to the results of the consideration of the issue of U.S. biological-military activities in Ukraine in the United Nations Security Council and the outcome of the vote in the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to re-elect Russia to the Executive Board of that organisation.
We have repeatedly noted that the work of U.S. military biologists is aimed at forming ‘artificially managed epidemics’ and is not monitored under the BWC and the UN Secretary General’s mechanism for investigating the use of biological weapons.
At the same time, the forecast of the situation assumes further deterioration of the epidemic situation with possible formation of artificial disease foci and uncontrolled expansion of the vector area.
For example, an increase in non-endemic Asian tiger mosquitoes has already been recorded in Southern and Central Europe during the last two years. In Germany, populations of this species have developed in five federal districts. Another mosquito species that is a vector of the West Nile fever has been identified in Sweden and Finland.
At the same time, an increase in the incidence of uncharacteristic vector-borne infections was noted in the EU countries. More people infected with dengue fever were reported in Europe during the year than in the previous decade. The peak incidence of the West Nile fever has also been recorded more than a thousand cases, 92 of them fatal.
Of particular concern is the increase in research on smallpox viruses and other human pathogenic orthopoxviruses by U.S. military specialists. This involves the evaluation of monkeypox virus as a potential infectious biological agent and the search for agent mimics of smallpox viruses.
I would like to note that only two institutions are allowed to work with this virus – the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA and the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology VECTOR in Russia.
However, despite a ban by the World Health Assembly, aerobiological experiments using two strains of smallpox virus were conducted by staff of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. The relevant document showing the involvement of the U.S. DoD in the research is shown on the slide.
This situation clearly demonstrates the U.S. administration’s disregard for international biosafety norms. Such work has the potential to trigger a global epidemic emergency, as a significant proportion of the population has become susceptible to smallpox and other orthopoxviruses as a result of loss of population immunity. The monkeypox pandemic and the increase in the incidence of cowpox virus worldwide over the past 10 years are clear examples.
I would like to remind you that American researchers have a keen interest in the synthesis of orthopoxviruses.
In 2017, they synthesised a functional genome of the equine smallpox virus. At the same time, the possibility of artificial production of Lassa, Ebola, Marburg, and human pathogenic coronaviruses was shown.
A recent example is the gain-of-function studies conducted at the Boston University, where directed modification of the COVID pathogen resulted in 80% lethality causing atypical neurological symptoms and severe lung lesions in model animals.
The risks of such dual-use research are greatly increased by the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies. This was clearly demonstrated by a US firm that used an artificial intelligence-based therapeutic compound generator to create potential chemical weapons agents.
I should like to make a special mention of the work carried out in 2023 to identify the organisers and participants in military-biological activities on the territory of Ukraine.
As a result of the analysis of the documentation received, more than 50 persons were identified including US and Ukrainian government officials, employees of intermediary organisations and private companies.
They include DTRA employees Kenneth Myers, Robert Pope and Joanna Wintrol; and Pentagon contractor representatives (Battelle and EcoHealth Alliance) Kevin Olival, Karen Sailors, and Lewis von Thaer.
This list includes Ukrainian citizens who took part in the implementation of the UP and TAP projects: Mikhail Usatiy, Tatyana Kiryazova.
For a long time, employees of the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU) and the U.S. Agency for International Development remained in the shadows developing scenarios aimed at accusing the Russian Federation of using biological weapons.
I would like to remind you that the relevant training took place in Lvov in August 2023 with the participation of representatives of the SBU and the National Police of Ukraine. The event was attended by Filippa Lentzos, Gemma Bowsher, Head of the Reference Laboratory for the Diagnosis of Viral and Highly Dangerous Pathogens Irina Demchishina, and Head of the Biosafety and Biological Protection Department of the Centre for Public Health of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine Darya Ponomarenko. Demchishina had previously acted as an intermediary in dealing with Pentagon contractor Black & Veatch and its vice president, Thomas Wahl.
Research on the study of pathogens of economically significant infections and mechanisms of their spread was led by Denis Muzyka. Viktor Gavrilenko and Aleksandr Mezinov were involved in collecting and sending materials.
Among those involved in the biological-military dossier, those involved in the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and who benefited financially from the distribution of substandard vaccines deserve special mention.
They include former CIA Director Gina Haspel, Department of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and White House adviser Anthony Fauci, who deliberately obstructed investigations into the causes of the COVID-19 pandemic and manipulated public opinion.
These are top officials of the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna, Albert Bourla and Stephane Bancel, who made super profits on sales of drugs dangerous to human health.
The list includes Pentagon contractor executives Nita Madhav, CEO of Metabiota, and Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance involved in laundering money from the U.S. government budget allocated to study the agent of a new coronavirus infection and fight the pandemic.
The U.S. and Ukrainian officials shown on the slide are only a small part of the biological-military dossier; more complete information has been transferred to military investigative bodies for appropriate legal assessment.
I would like to point out that the United States signed the Convention in 1972 and ratified it in 1975. We have in our possession a Pentagon document dated 1977 (i.e., after the BWC was ratified).
It shows the main activities of the US Army in the biological weapons development programme. According to the authors, this material was prepared for Congressional representatives to raise their awareness of the U.S. Department of Defense’s biological programme.
It is noteworthy that many of the government and scientific institutions listed in the document as Pentagon contractors under the biological weapons development programme are now involved in the so-called Biological Threat Reduction Programme conducted by DTRA in Ukraine. These include universities in Texas, Florida, Arizona, and others.
The directions of research implementation have not changed. The same pathogens of tularemia, anthrax, tick-borne infections are the priority.
In October 2023, the U.S. Department of Defense announced the launch of a training programme for the biomanufacturing strategy, with former military personnel with biomedical warfare experience being prioritised as candidates.
The official press release noted that ‘…the Department of Defence’s activities will focus on revitalising U.S. domestic manufacturing capabilities…that enhance America’s strategic competitiveness and enable the military of tomorrow…’.
Such language may be indicative of Washington’s attempts to recreate technologies for the large-scale production of biological formulations as part of an offensive biological programme.
Thus, the systemic expansion of biological-military activities poses a threat to the security of the Russian Federation and other States considered by the United States as strategic adversaries. The scale of U.S. dual-use research and the global biological risks it poses raise the question of an independent international investigation. Due to the unprecedented pressure from Washington, many states have taken a passive position on this issue, but the information received in the course of the special military operation on the development of biological weapons components on the territory of Ukraine in violation of Articles 1 and 4 of the Convention makes them change their point of view.
In the current situation, we consider it extremely important to resume work on a legally binding protocol to the Convention, which would be binding on all States Parties to the BWC, and first and foremost on the United States.
We are continuing to analyse incoming documents and will keep you informed.
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