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US rules out international control of its biolabs — Russian Defense Ministry

Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov recalled that back in 2001 the United States blocked work on a legally binding protocol to the BTWC, thus completely excluding the possibility of international control of its military-biological research

Russian Defense Ministry Mikhail Tereshchenko/TASS

Russian Defense Ministry

© Mikhail Tereshchenko/TASS

MOSCOW, September 6. /TASS/. Washington has ruled out the possibility of international control of US biolaboratories by blocking the work on a legally binding protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov, the chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops, has said.

"I would like to recall that back in 2001 the United States blocked work on a legally binding protocol to the BTWC, thus completely excluding the possibility of international control of its military-biological research," Kirillov said during a news briefing on the analysis of documents related to Washington's military-biological activities.

Kirillov pointed to statements by US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. who, during an interview with US TV host Tucker Carlson, spoke in detail about the events of September 11, 2001. In particular, he said that the subsequent signing of "the Patriot Act reopened the biolabs arms race in 2001 and the Pentagon began putting a lot of money into bioweapons."

"The US presidential candidate elaborated on the legal implications of the Patriot Act, in particular that since 2001, any official who violates the law on the use of biological weapons cannot be held criminally liable, although US federal law provides for capital punishment for this offence. This provision was used as a loophole in international treaties that were ratified by the US Congress," Kirillov concluded.

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