MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/. The US has embarked on a course toward expanding its military-biological activity across all regions of the world, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said at a plenary session of the Federation Council (upper house of parliament) on Wednesday.

He noted that Washington’s dangerous activity in this area in Ukraine has become a "stark example of the US dismissing its own international obligations."

According to the senior diplomat, the vast majority of parties to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC), including 120 countries comprising the Non-Aligned Movement, as well as a number of other nations, not excluding certain Western countries, support Russia’s position that the "effectiveness of the BWC would be much higher if a universal legally binding non-discriminatory protocol to this convention was to be developed, including an effective verification mechanism."

"Work on it [i.e. such a protocol] was at a rather advanced stage, but in the early 2000s it was suspended and, in fact, blocked by the very same United States, which then pursued a course toward ramping up its military-biological activity and dual-use programs in virtually every region of the world, of which the post-Soviet space has been no exception, but more likely has in fact been the primary focus," he stressed.

"The US’ dangerous military-biological activity in Ukraine is a stark example of how the United States neglects its own international obligations and serves as a reminder to us, as a ministry, and to our other relevant structures and federal executive branch agencies of the need to take practical measures for bolstering the BWC regime," Ryabkov emphasized.