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Putin’s Paranoia: Is The U.S. Encircling Russia With A Network Of Sinister Bioweapons Labs?

By Sandra Hajda
Published on: 17:30 PST, Feb 7, 2016

Vladimir Putin and his government are upset with the U.S. for allegedly building a secret network of biological weapons laboratories around the Russian border.

Putin believes that the labs are being built in states adjacent to Russia as part of a sinister U.S. strategy and that they pose a threat to his country.

Putin’s people outlined their worries about the labs in a strategy document that was recently signed and approved by Putin himself.

Russian officials wrote,”the network of U.S. military-biological laboratories on the territory of states adjacent to Russia is being expanded.”

In an article colorfully titled “Is the USA Getting Ready To Give The Ruskies A Good ‘Thraxing’?” the Daily Caller reports that last year the Putin administration accused the US government of covering up their efforts to “weaponize the disease” ie. to use deadly live anthrax as a weapon to be unleashed on an enemy population.

The US Defense Department admitted that it shipped live anthrax to labs in South Korea and the US, but claimed it was an accident, according to the BBC.

It was believed that some of the personnel at the South Korean base might have come into contact with the anthrax sample (South Korea is very close to the far-east border of Russia.) US military spokesmen said that so far none of these personnel have shown any signs of exposure.

US officials also said that “appropriate medical precautionary measures [like] examinations, antibiotics and in some instances, vaccinations,” were provided to those who may have been exposed to anthrax as a result of the accident.

Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren stressed that the sample was quickly destroyed after the mistake was detected.

The sample was destroyed in accordance with appropriate protocols.

Experts in biosafety slammed the US military for the dangerous mistake, saying they were astonished by the lapse. Many called for greater precautions.

The Daily Mail reported just last month that the individuals thought to be responsible for this accident have been identified and punished.

A general and 11 other people associated with a U.S. Army biodefense laboratory face potential punishment for leadership, management and technical failures that an Army report says contributed to the mistaken shipment of live anthrax to other labs over a period of years.

RT reports that Putin refuses to accept that this could have been an accident.

Moscow accuses the US of intentionally “obstructing international efforts to eradicate biological weapons,” and of seeking to involve other nations in their research on the weaponization of diseases like anthrax.

[T]he Pentagon admitted sending samples of the highly dangerous disease to at least 51 labs in 17 US states and three foreign countries.

The Russian ministry made a statement saying that the shipment “posed a high risk of outbreak that threatened not only the US population, but also other countries, including Canada and Australia. Of great concern is the shipment of bacteria to a US military facility in a third country, the Osan Air Base in South Korea.“

Putin is said to be particularly worried because one of Russia’s neighbors, Georgia, hosts a research facility for high-level biohazard agents.

The Russians believe that a facility called the Richard G. Lugar Center for Public and Animal Health Research near Tbilisi is actually an undercover American bioweapons lab.

According to the Russian ministry:

“American and Georgian authorities are trying to cover up the real nature of this U.S. military unit, which studies highly dangerous infectious diseases.”

American officials have brushed this off as “paranoid.”

Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon strategic analyst called the idea “absurd and paranoid even by Russian standards.”

Interestingly, Putin himself is rumored to use chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) materials as tools of war. The notorious assassination of Putin’s enemy Litvinenko is rumored to have been ordered by Putin himself. Putin approved the use of radioactive material from a Russian reactor, according to CNN.

https://twitter.com/WPLOUkambassado/status/687286239796531200

[Sergei Karpukhin/Pool via AP]

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