The United States secretly produces biological weapons in Ukraine. It trained disease-carrying birds into Russia. It created Covid-19. It operated labs in Nigeria to engineer this year’s monkeypox outbreak.
Afterward many lies that the Kremlin has spread since the war in Ukraine began more than six months ago, some of the wackiest but most enduring are those who accuse the United States of running secret biological research programs to wreak global havoc.
The United States and other countries have dismissed the allegations as unfounded, and Russia has offered no evidence. However, the claims continued to circulate. Sometimes aided by Chinese diplomats and state media, they solicit and publish international news bulletins, promoting conspiracy theories that persist online.
In Geneva this week, Russia led an international forum to publicize its unsupported assertions once again. Biological Weapons Convention, International Treaty that since 1975 has banned the development and use of weapons made with biological poisons or pathogens, giving member states the right to request a formal hearing on violations and that Russia has invoked for the first time for a quarter of a century.
Irina A. Yarovaya, Deputy Speaker of the Russian House of Representatives, State Duma, said: “This is a military biological Pandora’s box that the United States has opened and filled more than once. She is leading a congressional committee set up to “investigate” US support for biological research laboratories in Ukraine and elsewhere.
Hardly any Western official or expert would expect Russia to release information related to the allegations over the course of a week. If the past is any guide, that won’t stop Russia from creating them. Experts say Russia is likely using only the existence of an investigation, much of which will take place behind closed doors, to back up its claims about legitimacy.
Russia’s propaganda campaign has sought to justify the invasion ordered by President Vladimir V. Putin, who in April labeled the “Western network of biological weapons laboratories” as one of the threats to force Russia to act. More broadly, however, the series of accusations have sought to discredit the United States and its allies – Ukraine’s strongest supporters and increasingly the source of weapons used against Russian forces. .
Even when the facts were not supported, the accusations demonstrated a pre-existing attitude towards American dominance in foreign affairs. The consequence is to sow division and suspicion – not necessarily to support the Russian invasion, but rather to alleviate some of the blame for the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The notoriety of Russia’s accusations of clandestine weapons production could also erode trust in genuine biological research, much like the debate over Origin of Covid-19 yes.
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Filippa Lentzos, an expert in biological and security threats at King’s College London, said: “The constant message about these labs and that will erode trust in the infrastructure. that floor and the work being done. “And it would significantly undermine global biosecurity and biosecurity efforts, so it has consequences.”
Russia added a monkeypox outbreak to its list of US infestations in April. General Igor A. Kirillov, the head of the Russian Army’s radiation, chemical and biological defenses, hinted that the United States started the latest outbreak because it supports four research laboratories in Nigeria, where the epidemic began to spread.
According to research by Zignal Labs for The New York Times, in the months following the general’s comments, there were nearly 4,000 articles in Russian media, many of which were shared on Twitter, Facebook and other news outlets. other social networking platforms.
For evidence of a conspiracy, several Russian reports point to a 2021 simulation at the Munich Security Conference, an annual meeting of defense officials and experts from around the world. . The simulation, which aimed to test how countries would prevent a new pandemic, hypothesized an outbreak of monkeypox began in a fictional country called Brinia and caused 270 million deaths.
The Russian reports were so widespread that the advocacy group that designed the exercise, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, launched it statement in May trying to clear up any misconceptions.
The Washington-based organization wrote: “We have no reason to believe that the current outbreak associated with the pathogen has been engineered, as we have not seen any convincing evidence to support this claim. such a hypothesis”. “Nor do we believe that the current outbreak is capable of spreading as quickly as the fictional pathogen, engineered in our scenario, or causing such a high case fatality rate.”
Russia’s accusations have appeared in the news in many countries, especially in Africa and the Middle East, areas that have become a diplomatic battleground between the US, Russia and China.
State media in China regularly amplified Russia’s statement on the war with Ukraine and on secret biological weapons research, as part of its own information battle with the US, begins with the debate about the spread of Covid-19.
China’s heavily censored internet, which heavily suppresses unwelcome political opinions, has also been free. circulate Bloomberg reported on the possible role of Americans in the spread of smallpox in monkeys.
Russia’s efforts to promote biological weapons claims come from an old Russian propaganda book, tailored for the age of social media.
Researchers at the RAND Corporation have called Russia’s strategy “a tornado of falsehoods,” flooding the public with a large number of claims designed to deflect attention, causing confusion. and distrust as well as to provide an alternative perspective.
The false claim spread in the years that followed, even appearing at one point on “CBS Evening News With Dan Rather.” The campaign only ended in 1987 when the Reagan administration warned the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday, that it would damage the newly warming relationship with the West.
Today’s Russian propaganda model has been adapted to take advantage of “available technology and media in ways unimaginable during the Cold War,” according to the report. research RAND.
Despite the “shameless willingness to disseminate partial truth or complete fiction” and disregard for consistency, this strategy can often convince some people, especially those who already have prejudices. one of the authors, Christopher Paul, said in an interview.
“There are still people who believe that the CIA caused AIDS in Africa, even though that idea has been debunked,” said Paul. “Not much, but some.”
Like many disinformation campaigns, Russian allegations are sometimes closely linked to the truth.
Even before the war in Ukraine, Russia warned of US efforts to forge closer defense and research ties with some of Russia’s neighbors, including the republics. other former Soviet Union.
The United States has poured millions of dollars in assistance to these countries, as part of the Biological Threat Reduction Program. The initiative was originally aimed at dismantling the remnants of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons from the post-Cold War Soviet era, including in Ukraine. It has expanded to focus on supporting biological research laboratories that are critical to monitoring and preventing disease spread.
In the past, Russia has made unsubstantiated claims about a US-funded laboratory in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which Russia invaded in 2008.
The US State Department, in response to questions, said Russia’s accusations were intended to justify and distract from its gratuitous invasion of Ukraine.
Since the start of the war, Russia has brought its accusations before the United Nations Security Council. Izumi Nakamitsu, UN Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, has twice told the Council that there is no evidence of any biological weapons program in Ukraine.
Although Russian officials have repeatedly promised to provide evidence of secret weapons research in Ukraine, they have yet to do so.
On Monday, Russia will present to representatives of the 184 countries that have signed the Biological Weapons Convention. The United States, Ukraine and other countries should be able to respond by the end of the week. Because the treaty has no verification or enforcement provisions, there will be no formal ruling on Russia’s claims, but on Friday, countries can state their views.
Dr Lentzos of King’s College London says that due to format – and geopolitics – many countries may not want to openly contradict Russia or their biggest backer, China.
Only time a State Party to the Biological Weapons Convention called a special session That was in 1997, when Cuba accused the United States of spraying a host of insects on the country’s crops, causing severe devastation.
The proceedings were not made public, but several countries subsequently submitted written observations of Cuban claims and rebuttals by the United States. Only North Korea supported Cuba’s claim. Eight countries – Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Japan, the Netherlands and New Zealand – concluded no link. China and Vietnam said they could not be identified. (Russian has no response.)
Dr Lentzos said: “There is a silent majority that just wants to sit on the fence. “They don’t really want to take sides because it might hurt their interests. And the big question is not ‘Do these people believe it or not?’ To what extent are they motivated to act and speak up.”
