Center for Global Engagement at the Department of State published a new report which describes Russia’s attempts to spread disinformation about biological weapons allegedly being developed by the US military in Ukraine.
The eight-page report does not contain any new information about the campaign launched by the Kremlin immediately after the invasion of Ukraine, but rather a comprehensive overview of the far-reaching efforts that Moscow has been undertaking in this regard for many years.
The report was released a day after a senior State Department official said Russia and China were “clearly” united on propaganda and disinformation about the war in Ukraine and that the United States and the The West hadn’t paid enough attention to countering this misinformation for years.
The report’s authors note that “Russia, like the Soviet Union before it, has for decades made false claims about biological weapons in an effort to inspire distrust of global peace efforts and institutions. public health measures that counter biological threats”.
“After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian propaganda machine increased the volume and intensity of its bioweapons disinformation in a failed attempt to distract from its invasion of Ukraine. ‘Ukraine, to reduce international support for Ukraine, and in order to justify an unjustified war,” – said in the report.
“Russia has long blamed others for what it does itself, and its recent statements about Ukraine-linked bioweapons are no different in this case. The United States believes that Russia continues to support an offensive biological weapons program in violation of its obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention.
The report cites numerous examples of misinformation Russia has spread since the start of the war, including one of its “most notable misrepresentations that the United States was working with Ukraine to build an army of migrating birds, mosquitoes and even bats to deliver biological weapons to Russia”, which, according to the authors, is “absurd”.
The report said the false allegations are spread through “Russia’s system of disinformation and propaganda, such as Kremlin-funded media and websites linked to Russian intelligence services” and “so-called ‘experts’ who talk to the Russian press.
The report also mentions that a Russian parliamentary committee would investigate the existence of American biological laboratories in Ukraine, thus contributing to the disinformation of the Kremlin.
