Russia accuses US of increasing military biological capability globally

MOSCOW - The United States is consistently building up its military biological potential in various regions of the world, taking advantage of gaps in international law, the Russian military said Wednesday.

Washington is creating biological laboratories in different countries and connecting them to a unified system, said Igor Kirillov, chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces of the Russian Armed Forces.

In territories bordering Russia and China alone, there have been about 60 facilities modernized since 2005 with funding from the US military, he said at a meeting.

Kirillov noted that the United States has spent more than $5 billion on military biological programs since 2005.

According to him, these biological facilities are carrying out work in three areas: monitoring the biological situation in proposed areas for the deployment of military contingents of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; collecting and delivering strains of dangerous microorganisms to the United States; and studying potential agents of biological weapons.

Agents specific to a given region, having natural foci and capable of being transmitted to humans are also being studied, he added.