© Mike Blake / ReutersRichard Lugar Center for Public Health Research
The question of what really might have taken place at the secretive US-sponsored research facility hosted by Russia's southern neighbor was raised by the Russian military on Thursday after they studied files published online by a former Georgian minister.
The documents record the deaths of 73 people over a short period of time, indicating a test of "a highly toxic chemical or biological agents with high lethality rate," said Igor Kirillov, commander of the Russian military branch responsible for defending troops from radiological, chemical and biological weapons.
Kirillov apparently doubted that the tests, carried out by the Richard Lugar Center for Public Health Research near the Georgian capital Tbilisi, involved clinical trials of a drug called Sovaldi, which is meant for the treatment of Hepatitis C. The producer of the drug is Gilead Sciences, a California-based biomedical firm that recruited former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld as a board member in 1988, in between his two tenures as head of the Pentagon.
"The documents showed many lethal outcomes among the patients. Despite the deaths of 24 people in December 2015 alone, the clinical trials were continued in violation of international standards and the wishes of the patients," Kirillov claimed. "This led to the deaths of 49 more people."
The large number of deaths stands in stark contrast to the actual documented use of Sovaldi in Russia, where no deaths have been linked to the drug, the Russian official stressed. Kirillov added that the US has a long record of unethical testing on human subjects in foreign countries.
Russia will take "diplomatic and military action" in response to a perceived threat from US labs, said Vladimir Shamanov, head of Russian parliament's Defense Committee. He was commenting on accusations by the Defense Ministry. "We cannot simply turn a blind eye to things happening near our southern borders that directly affect our safety," he told TASS news agency.
Responding to the allegations, Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon told RIA Novosti that the US did not conduct bioweapons research in Georgia and called the Russian ministry's statements part of "a Russian disinformation campaign directed against the West."
The documents relating to the secret lab were published last month by former Georgian minister for state security Igor Giorgadze, who says he obtained 100,000 pages of data pointing to questionable US practices.
Comment: Further reading;