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Russian health watchdog’s chief warns against using biomaterial for criminal goals

On Monday, Vladimir Putin told a meeting of the Council for Human Rights that foreigners collect Russians’ biomaterial

© Sergey Bobylev/TASS

SOCHI, November 1. /TASS/. The head of Russia’s health watchdog known as Rospotrebnadzor, Anna Popova, has called to prevent the usage of research data on various biomaterials of humans and animals for criminal goals.

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"The risks about which we will speak today are linked to studying gene pathways of microorganisms, macroorganisms, humans and animals. All these are crucial research tasks. And non-usage of them for malicious purposes is a very important task and all of us have gathered here to address it," Popova told an international conference devoted to global threats to biological security.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a meeting of the Council for Human Rights that foreigners collect Russians’ biomaterial. The material belongs to different ethnic groups and people who reside in different geographic parts of Russia, he said. Putin added that such activity was being conducted "purposefully and professionally."

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov later explained that Putin received information about this from special services. It is true that some emissaries - representatives of NGOs and other entities - conduct such activity, Peskov said, adding "such incidents have been put on record and the special services and, naturally, the president, do have such information."

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