Mircea Toma, a member of the CNA and former president of the ActiveWatch organization, shows in an opinion piece in HotNews, how “a revelation” intended to attack the Biden administration of the former director of the American secret services was used by the Kremlin to fuel disinformation that has been circulating since the beginning of the Russian invasion in Ukraine.
A few days after invading Ukraine, the Russian Federation accused the United States of funding biological weapons production laboratories in Ukraine. The story of these laboratories was part of the informational arsenal mobilized by the Kremlin, as part of the cognitive war, to sabotage the temptation of third-party states or NATO to provide assistance to Ukraine.
The accusation of the “biological weapon” was part of a multi-pronged informational attack: “Ukraine has no state identity”, “Ukrainians are Nazis”, “Ukrainians are committing genocide against Russian speakers in Donbas”.
Unlike the other topics, the one about biological weapons laboratories was supported and multiplied also by the voices of officials from China.
Accusations without evidence
On the other hand, the information was denied both by American authorities and Ukrainian ones. Besides the statements of the authorities, it should be mentioned that both countries – Ukraine and the United States – are signatories of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction, which came into force on March 26, 1975.
Despite the absence of any material evidence, accusations regarding the existence of laboratories for biological weapons have continued, episodically, throughout the 4 years of war.
In the Western space, including in Romania, fact-checking organizations have publicly exposed the false nature of accusations regarding the existence of “Ukrainian laboratories intended for the production of biological weapons”, and native broadcasters who circulated the lie in the audiovisual medium were sanctioned by the CNA.
These interventions have led to a mitigation of the campaign on this subject in Romania.
Details, HERE