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Russia must work to protect itself from 21st-century biological threats — scientist

"It is necessary to form a stable base for the creation of a biological security shield," Mikhail Kovalchuk stressed

MOSCOW, September 2. /TASS/. Russia must form a stable foundation for the development of a biological security shield, Kurchatov Institute Research Center President Mikhail Kovalchuk said in an interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman on the occasion of the news agency’s 120th anniversary.

The scientist reiterated that the Kurchatov Institute was founded in 1943 to protect countries against nuclear risks. "These days, on the Russian president’s instructions, we have created a new Kurchatov Institute which in the same way will tackle tasks on ensuring biological security. It is necessary to form a stable base for the creation of a biological security shield," he stressed. "We must understand that when the Nazis attacked us, they insisted that we were subhumans," Kovalchuk noted. "That said, above all, they were interested in our resources: the rich black topsoil in Ukraine which they were taking to Germany by freight cars, coal and iron, ore in Donbass, oil in Baku and Grozny and so on. Back then they still needed people, as opposed to these days. Strong men for hard work and women to bear new workers," he explained.

According to the scientist, the situation has radically changed since then with technologies making people superfluous. "And they don’t need women to give birth to more people because they can grow as many 'biorobots,' if you will, as they want, in a test tube," he added. "Even back then, the Nazis exterminated tens of millions of people in concentration camps, burning them, conducting appalling experiments on them. And today a ‘hypothetical COVID’ with a 90% mortality will emerge and that’s it," the researcher added.

"We must clearly realize this," Kovalchuk emphasized. "And our experience in nuclear technologies, in the implementation of the nuclear project, must serve as a firm foundation for stopping this new 21st-century threat," he concluded.