More on the Bioweapons Claim

The BBC checks the facts.

Not long after finishing my post on the willingness of some in the American media to spread Russian disinformation regarding bioweapons research in Ukraine, I noticed this from the BBC, Ukraine war: Fact-checking Russia’s biological weapons claims. The basic conclusion: “No evidence: US funds biological weapons research in Ukraine.”

Ukraine has dozens of public health laboratories that work to research and mitigate the threats of dangerous diseases.

Some of these labs receive financial and other support from the US, the European Union and the World Health Organization (WHO) – as is the case in many other countries.

Despite Russian claims that these are “secret” labs, details of US involvement can be found on the US embassy’s website.

Emphasis mine.

The piece continues:

Additionally, the US set up its “Biological Threat Reduction Program” in the 1990s following the fall of the Soviet Union to reduce the risk from biological weapons that had been left behind in countries including Ukraine.

Under this programme certain labs receive funding from the US for modernisation and equipment, but are managed locally, not by the US.

The US Department of Defense has been working in partnership with Ukraine’s Ministry of Health since 2005 to improve the country’s public health laboratories. 

The US provides technical support and, according to the US Embassy in Ukraine, “works with partner countries to counter the threat of outbreaks (intentional, accidental or natural) of the world’s most dangerous infectious diseases”.

There is no evidence that they work to produce biological weapons. In January, the US said its programme does the opposite and in fact aims to “reduce the threat of biological weapons proliferation”.

There have been similar unsubstantiated claims by Russia in the past about US-backed biolabs operating in its neighbouring countries.

But, of course, one is free to believe the QAnon/Russian-generated propaganda if one so prefers.

There is more at the link.

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Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. CSK says:

    The official position of the MAGAs is that the BBC, like every other press organ, lies about everything relating to Trump and Putin, so of course they’re lying about this.

    You cannot reason with them.

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  2. Argon says:

    It’s simply not true that ‘the rats won’t fluck themselves’. Rats do a perfectly fine job of that on their own. But why is it that so many people want to ‘fluck rats’ too? So many pundits are clearly into bestiality…

  3. Slugger says:

    Just for fun let’s accept the claim of secret bioweapon labs in Ukraine. How many bombs on civilian targets would that merit? Other nations surely do have biological weapons research programs; should Moscow or Washington be bombed? No one can think that Ukrainian maternity hospitals are the only ones deserving bombs under such conditions.

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