US suspected of involvement in COVID-19 outbreak: Russian MoD
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is accused of being involved in the emergence of the new coronavirus.
A high-ranking general from the Russian Ministry of Defense said on Thursday that the development of the COVID-19 pandemic suggests the involvement of Washington in its outbreak.
The head of the radiation, chemical, and biological defense of the Russian armed forces, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, said on Thursday, "We are considering the possibility that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is involved in the emergence of the new coronavirus."
He explained that the organization launched a program called PREDICT in 2009, which was used to detect emerging disease threats at their source.
The program was used to study new types of coronaviruses and captured bats that carry these viruses, the official said.
Hence, it is likely the program was used when it was revived to create new viruses.
"The implementation of the COVID-19 development scenario and USAID's emergency termination of the Predict program in 2019 suggest the deliberate nature of the pandemic and US involvement in its outbreak," he added.
Read more: US-controlled studies of disease transmission via bats ongoing in Kharkov
US biolabs, very recently, have been exposed to be spread throughout the world, with Ukraine being a hotspot for over 30 US-funded biological weapon laboratories, which have been working on deadly specimens of African swine fever and anthrax.
In March, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said, "Documentation was received from employees of Ukrainian biological laboratories on the emergency destruction of especially dangerous pathogens of plague, anthrax, tularemia, cholera, and other deadly diseases on February 24. The emergency destruction of especially dangerous pathogens on February 24 was required to prevent the disclosure of facts of violations by Ukraine and the United States of Article I of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC)."
US involvement in illegal biolabs under different suspicious purposes across the world is being exposed by the day, and its complicity in the COVID-19 outbreak would be neither surprising nor the last.