The United States has started preparing for a new pandemic by searching for virus mutations, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of the radiation, chemical and biological defense troops of the Russian armed forces, said on Wednesday.
"The priority areas of this department include work on the creation of vaccines and drugs for stopping viruses and their genetically modified variants, as well as the introduction of advanced technologies in bioproduction. Thus, the United States, as it was in 2019, began preparing for a new pandemic by implementing search for virus mutations," Kirillov told reporters.
The US can also use its so-called defensive biotechnologies for offensive aims, as well as for global management purposes by creating biological crisis situations, the official added.
The US Army Research Institute of Infectious Diseases is going to play a leading role in the Pentagon's biological warfare program, Kirillov revealed.
The institute was established at Fort Detrick on the basis of a bioweapons development facility and is an important part of the global biological control system.
Documents uncovered during the special operation in Ukraine have confirmed that this institution is involved in collecting dangerous pathogens in various regions of the world, Kirillov said.