MOSCOW, April 7. /TASS/. The US Department of Energy organizes military and biological activities along with the Pentagon, Chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov said on Friday.
"The Russian Defense Ministry believes that the US Department of Energy organizes and directly participates in military biological activities on par with the Pentagon," he pointed out at a briefing on the analysis of documents pertaining to Washington's military biological activities.
According to Kirillov, in 2023, the US Department of Energy officially allocated $105 mln for work within the Bio-preparedness Research Virtual Environment initiative aimed at studying the epidemic spread of diseases.
"I would like to draw your attention to a statement by a US federal government department that the COVID-19 pandemic could have been caused by the virus’ leak from a laboratory in the city of Wuhan. The statement stressed that the disease had originated from a lab and the virus was highly likely to have spread by accident," the chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops noted, adding that the statement had been made by the US Department of Energy. "A natural question arises: what does the US Department of Energy have to do with the fight against biological threats and [why] does it implement projects that appear to be dual-purpose?" the general concluded.