Russia is upset with the Pentagon for allegedly bulking up on a secret network of biological weapons laboratories in Europe.
“The network of U.S. military-biological laboratories on the territory of states adjacent to Russia is being expanded,” says a new Russian national security strategy document, according to The Washington Free Beacon. It also warns of “uncertainty about instances of foreign states’ possession of biological weapons and their potential for developing and producing them.”
The State Department denied the charges, saying the U.S. is in full compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention ban on the stockpiling of biological weapons.
“The United States government supports public and animal health laboratories around the world whose mission it is to safely and securely detect and report the outbreaks of diseases,” spokesman Blake Narendra told The Washington Free Beacon.
The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the Pentagon of covering up research on the weaponization of diseases in June, following a May report that a Defense Department lab accidentally sent around live samples of anthrax to labs in the United States and abroad.
“American and Georgian authorities are trying to cover up the real nature of this U.S. military unit, which studies highly dangerous infectious diseases,” the ministry said.
Former Pentagon strategic analyst Mark Schneider told The Washington Free Beacon the idea there is a network of biological weapons labs in Europe is “absurd and paranoid even by Russian standards.”
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