MOSCOW, June 12. /TASS/. The United States is trying to justify its unseemly military biological activities in the post-Soviet space with fake news, official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said in an interview with TASS.
The diplomat drew attention to the "Fact Sheet on WMD Threat Reduction Efforts with Ukraine, Russia and Other Former Soviet Union Countries" published on June 9 on the website of the US Department of Defense, which contains statements about the allegedly peaceful nature of US activities in the biological sphere on post-Soviet space.
"We consider this material to be fake news and part of an information campaign launched by Washington to justify the United States' military biological activities in the post-Soviet space in order to divert international attention away from their true non-transparent and unseemly nature, which contradicts Washington's international obligations, including those under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC)," Zakharova stressed.
"For obvious reasons, the United States prefers to remain silent about ongoing work in the post-Soviet space and does not provide information as part of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC). Assertions that the activity of the Pentagon and related structures is focused exclusively on health issues, are not true. Obviously, health care does not require the participation of the US military," she said.
Zakharova stressed that the numerous explanations that the United States is collecting biomaterial and monitoring the epidemiological situation "only reinforce and strengthen the fears of the Russian Federation in the context of compliance with the BTWC, including the facts revealed in Ukraine".