US expert Jeffrey Sachs joined the commission’s deliberations via videoconference.
Deputy Federation Council Speaker Konstantin Kosachev and Deputy State Duma Speaker Irina Yarovaya presided over a meeting of the Parliamentary Commission on Investigating the Circumstances Linked with the Creation of US Biological Laboratories in Ukraine.
The commission focused on a report by the US Defence Department’s Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) regarding the US government’s biological R&D in Ukraine.
“This is a key document that discloses the trend of US activities and has, from our point of view, the nature of an evidentiary base,” Konstantin Kosachev said.
He indicated that the report’s status was defined as a strategic planning act. “This document provides exhaustive evidence that the Pentagon used military budget funds to finance private commercial companies, including in Ukraine. There is a list of Ukrainian institutions that were openly complicit with the Americans, helping them to implement the relevant programmes,” Konstantin Kosachev stated.
“This warrants the conclusion that DTRA is the main agency whose mission is to commission threats against Russia and ensure a unilateral military advantage for the US by developing biological weapons,” he stressed.
According to Kosachev, a number of US biological laboratories located in the direct vicinity of Russian borders go on with this work. “In all, no less than 50 biological laboratories out of the total number of about 300 operating outside the national territory of the United States are located along the Russian Federation’s national borders.”
He noted that in the process of their work, parliamentary commission members evolved a vision of the mechanisms of US national strategy designed to ensure America’s unilateral military advantage.
Konstantin Kosachev believes that the international community should be compelled to focus on this problem and that a reliable barrier must be erected to these illegal activities.
“The world public is increasingly focused on our work and the problem of US biological research. Our analysts have counted over 900 foreign media publications between the commission’s two meetings alone. It is clear that the number of publications sharing Russian concerns is growing,” Konstantin Kosachev stated.
US expert Jeffrey Sachs joined the commission’s deliberations via videoconference and answered questions posed by its members.
According to Konstantin Kosachev, the next meeting of the parliamentary commission is scheduled for 20 February.
The parliamentary commission includes 14 Russian senators and 14 deputies of the State Duma.