MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/. The documents obtained in the special military operation in Ukraine testify to the work of the US company Metabiota in Africa in the interests of US government agencies, including the Department of State, Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov said on Monday.

"The documents obtained in the special military operation confirm the link between the Walter Reed Institute and the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and its key contractor, the company Metabiota. The available financial and scientific documents testify to the company’s activity on the territory of Africa - in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa. In addition to the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), the documents list the US National Security Agency and Department of State among customers represented by the US government," the general said.

The documents describe Metabiota’s ‘flexible’ methods of activity making it possible to cover up the US government’s participation in foreign projects and resolve bureaucratic issues through the hire of local officials. However, in the face of the international community’s growing concern, the Pentagon is forced to change its tactics in organizing ‘dual-purpose’ work, Kirillov said.

The chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops also pointed to the existence of a ramified network of branches of the US Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and the US Naval Medical Research Command. The Walter Reed Institute has four overseas branches furnished with laboratories featuring a high level of biological isolation and a network of regional units for sample selection and strain transportation, he said.

"The scale of ongoing work with dangerous pathogens can be evidenced by about 500 staff of the branch located in Thailand. The branch has units in Nepal, Cambodia and the Philippines, which, in turn, interact with 12 more Southeast Asian countries," Kirillov said.

"Apart from the US Army Research Institute, the US Naval Medical Research Command also has a network of foreign branches. Its NAMRU subordinate laboratories carry out work with pathogenic microorganisms in North Africa, the Middle East and South America. Such a ‘ramified’ approach implemented throughout the world allows the US defense agency to gain access to epidemically significant pathogen variants that are potential biological weapon agents. They include the Marburg and Ebola fevers, malaria and the Rift Valley fever," the chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops said.