MOSCOW, January 15. /TASS/. A former CIA chief, an ex-secretary of health of the United States and a former White House medical advisor hampered a probe into the origins of the COVID-19, while Pfizer and Moderna harvested profits from substandard vaccines, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the Russian Armed Forces’ Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense (RCBD) Troops, said at a briefing on Monday.

Among other people who had a hand in spreading the pandemic and capitalized on selling substandard vaccines, he mentioned Gina Haspel, who was the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2018-2021, former US Health Secretary Alex Azar and Anthony Fauci, US President Joe Biden’s Chief Medical Advisor during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, "the CEOs of Pfizer and Moderna pharmaceutical manufacturers, Albert Bourla and Stephane Bancel, harvested excessive profits from selling dangerous medications," the general added.

According to Kirillov, the list of people involved in COVID-19 relief fraud also includes top managers from a number of US contracting organizations, namely Nita Madhav, who was CEO of Metabiota, and Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance.

The US and Ukrainian officials mentioned at the briefing "are just a few people" involved in military-biological activities, the Russian general said, adding that more information would be submitted for a military investigation.