The activities of the "Research Center of Public Health, named after R. Lugar " in Georgia, in the immediate vicinity of the borders of South Ossetia, is a danger to both individuals and the state as a whole, said at a press conference in Tskhinval DeputyDefense Minister of the RSO, Colonel Vadim Siukaev.
According to him, it is the bio laboratory in Georgia that causes particular concern in Russia and, accordingly, in South Ossetia.
“The Georgian laboratory is the largest of all the existing in the CIS. It is located within the military facility in the village of Alekseyevka (15 km from Tbilisi). There is also a military airfield there, and there is stationed one of the motorized infantry brigades of the Defense Ministry of Georgia, which took part in the 2008 war,” he said.
According to Siukaev, the Pentagon has invested more than $ 350 million in the center of Lugar.
“The laboratory is active, various programs are being implemented there - plague and anthrax infections, hepatitis C are being investigated and produced. In total, 90 people work in the laboratory, of whom 70 are citizens of Georgia, the rest are foreigners, mostly the Pentagon specialists,” the Deputy Minister said.
He has noted that the center of Lugar has a degree of secrecy "3+" of the possible "4", similar laboratories are located only in the United States.
"Access to the sector where viruses are produced, has the secrecy of" 3+ ". The laboratory has seven exhaust pipes that operate around the clock, although one pipe is enough for the laboratory. It means that we are not dealing with a simple laboratory, but with a well-established production of elements of biological and bacteriological weapons,” Siukaev emphasized.
According to the Deputy Minister of Defense of South Ossetia, the laboratory is military in nature and has a storage facility “which is not in civilian institutions of this type.”
“The presence of such laboratories in the CIS countries and the third world is clear - the Pentagon has protected its population from similar enterprises, and all the leaks of infections occur in the territories of other countries. Here, Georgia is playing the role of a guinea pig, US citizens are out of threats,” he explained.
From the laboratory, the Deputy Minister continued, there are sewers that flow into the Kura River, while no one controls the pollution of water.
“The Georgian authorities say that this year the laboratory has come under the full control of the Ministry of Health of Georgia, although access to information is still limited. Journalists are shown other similar institutions where there is no secrecy,” said the Deputy Defense Minister.
According to Siukaev, the degree of danger emanating from the center of Lugar may aggravate the human factor, which is always of key importance.
“If the instructions are violated, poisonous substances can be taken outside the laboratory. We cannot say that among the laboratory workers there are no people who are radically opposed to South Ossetia, who will not use them against us,” he noted.
Deputy Defense Minister of South Ossetia is sure that the very existence of a laboratory near the territory of the Republic is a serious threat.
“Our state cannot yet counteract bioterrorism,” he stressed.
Siukaev has also reminded that a large number of similar laboratories are located in the CIS countries, which operate under the auspices of the US Defense Department.
“Before the 2014 coup in Ukraine, there were 15 such laboratories, now their number has reached 20, and everything that happens within the walls of the laboratories goes under the heading of secrecy. As a rule, they are of a third degree of secrecy,” he concluded.
