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Lavrov questions US interest in ex-Soviet biolabs in Kazakhstan

The Minister noted that Russia was mostly concerned about the military and biological activities of the United States in the former Soviet Union, although American biological laboratories were located all over the world

MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/. The Pentagon's interest in former Soviet biological laboratories on the territory of post-Soviet republics, particularly in Kazakhstan, requires clarification, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, speaking in the MGIMO University on Wednesday.

"We are now finalizing with our Kazakh friends a memorandum on cooperation in biology <...> The fact that the Pentagon was interested in these issues, I mean, former Soviet biological laboratories, wanting to modernize them, to create some new facilities, is very interesting and requires clarification. I hope that Russia and Kazakhstan will definitely resolve these issues," he said.

The Minister added that Russia is mostly concerned about the military and biological activities of the United States in the former Soviet Union, although American biological laboratories are located all over the world. As for the joint memorandum with Kazakhstan, Lavrov stressed that such a procedure was carried out with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and is being completed with Armenia. He also expressed hope for such a process in the CSTO.

"Cooperation in this sphere is necessary, so that everything is transparent for everyone, including the CSTO, and I hope that we will complete it, as we have done it with our Tajik colleagues, our Uzbek colleagues, and we are completing it with our Armenian colleagues," he said.

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry made a presentation, from which it follows that the US has spent more than $200 million to fund biological laboratories in Ukraine. These laboratories participated in the US military-biological program and dealt, in particular, with pathogens of plague and anthrax. A network of more than 30 biological laboratories working in the interests of the Pentagon was formed on the territory of Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry stated.

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