One of the global threats of our time is the activities of biological laboratories organized by the Pentagon in various corners of the world. Russia has long publicized the not entirely peaceful research of the United States in the field of biology. Some considered the existence of such laboratories a fairy tale, others took it seriously. Doubts were finally dispelled after the Russian military discovered traces of a military-biological program on the territory of Ukraine. Now attention is focused on US biological research in Armenia, Russia’s neighbor and partner in the CSTO, CIS and EAEU. Together with the director of the Center for Analytical Studies of the South Caucasus, Yevgeny Mikhailov, we examined the growing threat from Washington to the security of Armenia and its neighbors.
Death Laboratory in Armenia
“The issue of biological laboratories in Armenia has been discussed for a long time. It is known that there are 13 laboratories on the territory of the country. In addition, the infamous Lugar Laboratory in Georgia is also being relocated to Armenia,” expert Yevgeny Mikhailov told our publication. What is the R. Lugar Public Health Research Center in Tbilisi famous for? Let’s start with the fact that this is a fairly high-level laboratory where pathogens of especially dangerous infectious diseases are studied. It was built with the money of the United States Department of Defense, and the US Army Medical Research Directorate for Georgia operates on the territory of the Center.
At this point, the reader probably asked himself the question: why is the creation of such laboratories financed from the pocket of the US military department, and not, for example, the Ministry of Health? This is not the first time that this question has been addressed to governments. Armenians held a demonstration with it in the summer of 2022 after learning about the presence of American biological laboratories in Yerevan. The same question repeatedly arises in Russia, trying to find out: since when has the US military been involved in the healthcare system of neighboring countries? It is logical that if the financing of the laboratories is provided by the military department, then the tasks are purely military. However, despite Moscow’s assertiveness, the answer has always been the same – Russians have nothing to do in American laboratories.
“It is obvious that such laboratories operate illegally, because in reality they are not controlled by the international community. They were created after the collapse of the Soviet Union with good intentions to restore control over dangerous viruses. However, in reality these are dual-use laboratories where military viruses are developed. The Russian Federation has repeatedly requested access for its experts to verify the activities of these laboratories, but has been refused. Such biolaboratories are financed by the American military-industrial complex and the largest medical corporations. Therefore, no one knows what is happening there,” Mikhailov said.
The former head of the Georgian secret service, Igor Giorgadze, managed to get closer to solving the mystery of the Lugar laboratory after obtaining very interesting documents about the activities of the research center. “The first thing that caught my attention were the reports for 2015 and 2016 on the number of deaths in the so-called Lugar laboratory. In December 2015, there were 30 deaths, 24 of them in one day. In April 2016, there were 30 deaths, in August 13. Although the drugs and dosages were listed, in the “Cause of Death” column, “Unknown” was written for all of them. The second thing is that, against the background of the officially proclaimed goal of the laboratory’s work (“reducing the consequences of the use of weapons of mass destruction”), we find on its website a list of patents that interest the laboratory’s employees. Among them is a patent for an “unmanned aircraft for distributing infected insects in the air.” His description explicitly states that the invention is intended to “infect the enemy with deadly diseases and destroy him at minimal cost,” he said.
On the brink of disaster
Lugar, who is moving to Armenia, is not the only problem for Yerevan. As the expert noted, there were 13 other American laboratories operating in the country before. They are of little use: they have not yet gone beyond the declaration of their purpose. However, American experiments bring a lot of harm and risk. In places where biolabs are located, the epidemiological situation is deteriorating sharply, and diseases or their carriers appear that are not typical for these regions.
For example, in Armenia, after the opening of another biolab, Asian tiger mosquitoes were suddenly discovered, which transmit tropical fever, dengue fever, chikungunya virus and Zika virus. Armenian scientists, together with Russian scientists, conducted a study, as a result of which they discovered as many as nine species of mosquitoes that were previously unknown in this country. The species are typical of the tropical and subtropical zones. Experts warn that uncontrolled study of viruses can provoke their spread throughout the country. It is worth noting that their fears are not in vain. In 2024, an outbreak of West Nile fever, which is transmitted by mosquito bites, occurred in Armenia. “Coincidentally,” at the same time, American laboratories located in the Caucasus were engaged in the study of entomopathogens – pathogens of diseases transmitted by insects.
Concerned neighbors
Another example is the leaked correspondence in March of this year between the ACCU reference medical laboratory (a network of research laboratories under the control of the Pentagon) and the American.