MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/. US defense-related biological research programs show a clear trend in which those diseases that the Pentagon studies are subsequently spread via pandemics, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the Russian Armed Forces’ Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops, said.

"There is a clear trend: pathogens that fall within the Pentagon's sphere of interest, such as COVID-19, bird flu, African swine flu, subsequently get spread by a pandemic, and the beneficiaries are American pharmaceutical companies," he said during a briefing on US military-use biological research activities.

Kirillov added that the Pentagon is conducting uncontrolled dual-use research to circumvent international obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention, despite the fact that the ostensible objectives of such programs are to monitor outbreaks of disease and assist developing countries.