MOSCOW, July 18. /TASS/. Russia’s defense ministry has released a list of individuals linked to the activities of Ukraine’s Science and Technology Center as part of the United States’ military biological programs in Ukraine. The list features a member of Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences and a former deputy minister of education and science.
According to the documents that were made public at the briefing by Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the list includes six persons: Brian Mefford, founder and CEO of Wooden Horse Strategies LLC; Marina Antonova, the company’s director general and director of the Ukraine 3000 Foundation; Taras Byk, the company’s government relations director; Boris Grinev, a member of the National Academy of Sciences; Maxim Strikha, former deputy minister of education and science; and Nikolay Lyubiv, senior deputy executive director of the Science and Technology Center.
According to these documents, Mefford, Antonova, and Byk are involved in developing and spearheading the information strategy geared to conceal data on financing biological studies of dangerous pathogens. Grinev and Strikha supervised the United States’ military biological program in Ukraine, and Lyubiv was in charge of the work to hide information about the role of American researchers in the activities of biological laboratories in Ukraine and about trials of medicines on Ukrainian civilians and soldiers.
Kirillov noted that information about US biolaboratories in Ukraine has leaked into the foreign mass media, despite the West’s censorship. Thus, in his words, publications on this topic have appeared in The Times, The Guardian, the New York Post, and on the Sky News television channel. However, the US Department of State has launched a large-scale propaganda campaign to counter Russia’s reports about American military-biological activities, he said, adding that a pillar of this campaign is the US-controlled International Science and Technology Center (ISTC).
According to the Russian defense ministry, the ISTC signed a contract with Wooden Horse Strategies, a consulting company, envisaging the release of "corresponding materials" at least eight times a month, as well as monitoring of and response to pro-Russian online publications.