MOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/. The United States owes the global community compensation for the losses incurred by the coronavirus pandemic because Washington is responsible for the spread of the virus, Russian State Duma (the lower house of parliament) Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on Wednesday.

"Millions of cases and fatalities, a global economic crisis, and plummeting living standards are the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic that Washington must be held accountable for," he wrote on Telegram, commenting on American researcher Jeffrey Sachs’s remarks blaming the US for the spread of the coronavirus. "The US must compensate the losses of all countries who suffered from the pandemic," Volodin insisted.

He pointed out that according to Sachs, COVID-19 had been created in US biotechnological laboratories after two years of intensive research.

"Today, when such accusations are made, [US President Joe] Biden is silent. He fears that the world will find out the truth about the real culprit behind the pandemic," Volodin maintained.

The State Duma speaker added that "US military biological research that they conduct around the world must be stopped and made public."