MOSCOW, February 7. /TASS/. Russia considers the US-led West’s military-biological activities near its border as a potential threat to national security, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday.

"For our part, we note that Russia considers the military-biological activities carried out by the United States and its allies near our border as a potential threat to national security. We have repeatedly pointed to the serious risks linked with the emergence along our borders of laboratories engaged in the above-mentioned activities, which are backed by and affiliated to the US Department of Defense and Washington’s allies," she said, commenting on reports about plans to relocate US laboratories from Ukraine to Poland and the Baltics.

According to the Russian diplomat, the situation with Washington’s military-biological activities in Ukraine demonstrates the importance of urgent steps toward strengthening the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC). "The egregious example of the unacceptable situation of US and Ukrainian military and biological activities on Ukrainian territory that violate the BTWC demonstrates with clarity the importance of urgent steps to strengthen the BTWC in order to establish effective mechanisms to resolve such situations and prevent their occurrence in the future," Zakharova continued.

"Along with the vast majority of BTWC member states (including all non-aligned countries and a number of others, even Western nations), we insist that the convention’s efficiency would increase considerably if a universal, legally-binding and non-discriminatory protocol which concerns all of its provisions is adopted along with an effective verification mechanism. The development of such an instrument that would make it possible to ensure the reliable implementation of the BTWC and prevent its violation has been blocked groundlessly by the United States since 2001," she stressed.

She referred to the Russian defense ministry for details about the relocation of US military-biological laboratories from Ukraine to Poland and the Baltic states.

Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Force Igor Kirillov said in early January that the United States was using chemical and pharmacological companies in Poland and the Baltics in a campaign to curb its military-biological activities in Ukraine. According to Kirillov, equipment from Ukraine has been transferred to these countries.