DISINFO: The leaked documents prove that the US is working on biological weapons in Georgia
SUMMARY
The US Centre for Disease Control, which has built a laboratory in Georgia and has already spent $750 000 on it (and is going to spend another $250 000), is researching bacteriological weapons and various pathogens. As the published documents show, this research covers the creation of bacteriological weapons, which can eliminate the countries objectionable to the US. Earlier, the South Ossetian KGB stated that the American curators from the medical research unit of the US Army in Georgia assign the Georgian leadership of the centre tasks such as “the development of biological weapons aimed at targeting the South Ossetian population.”
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the Lugar lab. Consistent with a recurring pro-Kremlin conspiracy theory alleging that the United States develops biological weapons around the world, including in Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine and other countries. Read the latest here. The documents mentioned in the disinformation claim concern the cyberattack on the Lugar Lab carried out in September. The goal of the cyber attack was to illegally appropriate and use the medical records and pandemic management information stored in the databases of the central office of the Ministry of Health and its structural units including the Lugar Center. According to the Interior Ministry of Georgia, some of the authentic documents were uploaded to a foreign website, together with inauthentic, deliberately falsified documents. The disinformation case is an example of how pro-Kremlin disinformation fabricates evidence. Authentic documents on the work of the Lugar Lab have been exploited before to create an illusion that the Lab is involved in secret programmes. See earlier cases on leaked documents on the Lugar Lab reported by Myth Detector here and here. The U.S Embassy in Georgia officially addressed the conspiracy theories behind the Richard Lugar Centre as "nonsense and typical of Russian misinformation and propaganda campaigns." Read similar disinformation cases about the Lugar Lab intentionally infecting South Ossetians with COVID-19 and EUMM collecting biological materials for the Lugar Lab and dangerous experiments.