MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/. The US biolaboratories, created outside the national territory, have actually become NATO’s military facilities, the State Duma' deputy speaker, Irina Yarovaya, told the lower house of parliament on Thursday. Yarovaya, a co-chair of the parliamentary commission investigating US biological laboratories in Ukraine, warned that those labs might be used for unpredictable bacteriological attacks.
"In the light of the latest statements made yesterday by [NATO Secretary-General Jens] Stoltenberg, as well as by NATO officials who list Russia among their enemies, we can say with certainty that their statements about the creation of additional NATO military infrastructure starting from 2014 were a reference to the facilities that have emerged in Ukraine. The US military biological laboratories are actually NATO’s military facilities," Yarovaya stressed.
She warned that they posed a special danger to Russia and its allies, because "they operate under the veil of tight secrecy and, undoubtedly, can be used at any moment as a testing ground for unpredictable and unforeseen bacteriological attacks."
"The United States has displayed particular interest in pathogens that are exotic and uncommon in Ukraine, such as the Ebola virus, Zika virus and smallpox. Undoubtedly, such interest is explained by the wish to conduct analysis, to probe into the possibility of assessing risks during real US military operations on the territory of Ukraine," Yarovaya said.
She recalled that earlier the commission exposed instances of bioterrorism at one of the schools of the Lugansk People's Republic, where counterfeit banknotes infected with a highly pathogenic strain of Asian tuberculosis were distributed. Also, the commission found that a veterinary laboratory in Mariupol had conducted "research into gas gangrene and pathogens that have nothing to do with veterinary medicine."
Experiments
Yarovaya said that the inquiry had unearthed evidence "dangerous experiments were also carried out on Ukrainian military servicemen."
"The documents say that within 72 hours upon the occurrence of adverse consequences Ukraine was obliged to notify the Pentagon. In the event of a serviceman’s death, it was to do so immediately. No humanitarian projects ever involve such consequences," Yarovaya stressed.
The commission found solid proof that the work at military laboratories "was carried out by highly qualified Pentagon specialists."
"A number of Pentagon-affiliated services were commissioned in the capacity of coaches on the territory of Ukraine. Moreover, additional analysis allowed us to reliably establish that the coding of specialists used confirms they had experience of research into biological weapons," Yarovaya said.
Inquiry
The State Duma and the Federation Council in March adopted a resolution to conduct a parliamentary investigation into the biological laboratories in Ukraine, as well as to create a joint panel of inquiry to conduct such a probe. The commission consists of 14 Duma members and as many Federation Council members. The State Duma’s deputy speaker, Irina Yarovaya, and the Federation Council’s deputy speaker, Konstantin Kosachev, are its co-chairs.
As Yarovaya said earlier, the commission's task was to produce a dossier that would be sent to Russia’s president and government and to international organizations. The dossier, she said, will present the necessary evidence, "highlight all cause-and-effect relationships, identify all threats and challenges, as well as name all involved organizations, international law entities and officials concerned."
State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin earlier said that one of the first ones to be questioned by the panel of inquiry should be US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov earlier said the special military operation in Ukraine had produced evidence the Kiev regime urgently eliminated traces of a US Department of Defense-funded military biological program in Ukraine. He said that according to staffers of Ukrainian biolaboratories a number of extremely dangerous pathogens, such as those causing plague, anthrax, tularemia, cholera and other lethal diseases were urgently eliminated on February 24.
Nuland, while testifying before the US Senate’s foreign relations committee on March 9, acknowledged that in Ukraine there were some facilities conducting clandestine biological research and Washington was keen to prevent Russian forces from gaining control of these facilities. She said the US Department of State was "quite concerned that Russian troops, Russian forces, may be seeking to gain control of [those labs], so we are working with the Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces.".