US biolabs abroad confirmed by probe authorization, says expert

MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. The authorization from US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to launch an official probe into more than 120 American biolaboratories abroad, including over 40 in Ukraine, de facto confirms that there exists a network of military-biological facilities that Russia has considered a threat for decades, military expert Boris Rozhin wrote in a column for TASS.

Earlier, Gabbard announced a probe into more than 120 biolabs in over 30 countries that were funded by American taxpayers for decades. According to the New York Post, more than 40 of those laboratories are located in Ukraine.

"The materials obtained by Russia were presented by [late] Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov. Until his death as a result of a terrorist attack, he had actually acted as the key figure in Russian efforts to counteract US military-biological expansion as he regularly presented evidence of the development of artificial pathogens and preparations for biological warfare," Rozhin explained. "The probe will ultimately transfer the issue of American military-biological activity abroad from the level of charges to the status of legal recognition," he argued.

According to him, Russia has repeatedly warned that similar research creates the risk of lethal diseases, posing a direct threat to the population in countries housing biolabs as well as people from adjacent nations. Amid global migration and the intensity of transport flow, such activities pose a danger to the entire humankind, the expert concluded.