“After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States and its satellites deployed a network of biolaboratories in the space of the former Soviet republics – in Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Armenia …”
On May 7, Azerbaijan denied Russia’s claim that it hosts foreign-financed labs to research biological weapons, a propaganda claim that Russia has also aimed at Ukraine.
Azerbaijan’s State Security Service (SSB) said flatly that such laboratories have never operated in the country. The SSB statement came after Russia claimed it could face biological threats from lab leaks in countries on its southern borders.
On April 27, Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said:
“After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States and its satellites deployed a network of bio-laboratories in the space of the former Soviet republics – in Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Armenia, where, under the guise of scientific research, they conduct military-biological activities.”
That is false.
Moscow has been making similar bogus claims for years and used the same false narrative to help defend its February 24 invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin conflates bioweapons labs with legitimate biological research into infectious diseases and other public health threats.
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