DISINFO: US biological laboratories were exposed in Georgia and the Baltic
DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS
  • Outlet: arabic.sputniknews.com (archived)*
  • Date of publication: December 03, 2019
  • Outlet language(s): Arabic
  • Reported in: Issue 176
  • Countries / regions discussed: Georgia, US, Baltic states, Russia
Tags:
Lugar Laboratory Biological weapons Chemical weapons/attack

DISINFO: US biological laboratories were exposed in Georgia and the Baltic

SUMMARY

About a year ago, the US biological laboratories were exposed in Georgia and the Baltic States, where they modify viruses and many serious diseases.

RESPONSE

Conspiracy theory with no evidence given, based on recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the biological weapons.

See similar disinformation cases: the US prepares biological weapons against Russia, the US is constructing secret biological labs, Pentagon is working out a biological war strategy in the Baltics.

Sputnik's claims that the Lugar Center and other biological labs in the Caucasus and Central Asia are making banned bioweapons are unfounded. Last month a group of international experts visited the Lugar Center in Georgia, and given access to all areas of the site, examined relevant documentation, and interviewed staff, and concluded that the Center demonstrates significant transparency. The group observed nothing out of the ordinary, or that someone wouldn’t expect to see in a legitimate facility of this sort.

Richard Lugar Center for Public Health Research is a facility of the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC), which became operational in August 2013. The Lugar centre is a top-tiered institution in NCDC’s laboratory network and serves as a reference laboratory of Georgia’s public health system.

Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon strongly rejected the claims, calling them “an invention of the imaginative and false Russian disinformation campaign against the West” and “obvious attempts to divert attention from Russia’s bad behaviour on many fronts.”

Read more about Lugar lab on Myth Detector.

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Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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