Moscow is assessing the possibility that a US government agency had a role in the creation of Covid-19
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it was investigating the possible role of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in creating the Covid-19 virus.
During a press briefing on Thursday, the head of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, claimed that US-backed biological laboratories in Ukraine had conducted research and tests dubious clinics on Ukrainian citizens, and that “More than 16,000 biological samples, including blood and serum samples, were exported from Ukrainian territory to American and European countries.”
He went on to explain that a statement by Jason Crow, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, who warned Americans that their DNA samples could be used to create targeted biological weapons, pushed the Russian Ministry of Defense to “take a fresh look” origins of the Covid pandemic.
“Given the US administration’s interest in studying narrowly targeted biological agents, such statements compel us to take a fresh look at the causes of the novel coronavirus pandemic and the role of US military biologists. in the Emergence and Spread of the Covid-19 Pathogen”, said Kirillov.
Russia now suspects USAID may have been directly responsible for the emergence of the Covid-19 virus, according to Kirillov, who pointed to a Lancet paper by Columbia professor Jeffry Sachs, which suggested the virus was likely created in a laboratory with the help of the latest American achievements in the field of biotechnology.
Kirillov pointed out that since 2009, USAID has been funding a program known as “To predict,” conducting research on novel coronaviruses that involved the capture of wild bats infected with such pathogens, and that one of the project’s contractors, Metabiota, was known for military biological activities on Ukrainian territory.
In 2019, the agency ended the “Predict” program while the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security coincidentally began studying the spread of a previously unknown coronavirus.
“USAID’s implementation of the COVID-19 Development Scenario and emergency shutdown of the Predict program in 2019 suggests the deliberate nature of the pandemic and U.S. involvement in its onset,” said Kirillov.
He added that the recent emergence of the monkeypox virus, as well as the alleged history of the United States of using biological agents against its enemies, led Moscow to observe a “clear trend” of pathogens that for some reason are of interest to the Pentagon, eventually turning into pandemics.
The United States has repeatedly denied using biological labs in Ukraine to conduct military research and claims that the “46 peaceful Ukrainian laboratories, health facilities and disease diagnostic sites” were used to help kyiv improve the biological safety, security and disease surveillance for human and animal health.
The exact origins of the Covid-19 virus have yet to be conclusively proven. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in February 2021 that it was most likely transmitted from an animal, possibly a bat, to humans.
rt
