Russian journalists were permitted by the management of the Georgian National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC) to inspect the US-funded Richard Lugar Center for Public Health and Research in Tbilisi, where the Pentagon is, according to Russian claims, running a secret biological weapons laboratory, after which the reporters were able to confirm that US specialists were working at the site, a Sputnik correspondent, who visited the lab, reported from the scene on Friday.
TBILISI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th October, 2018) Russian journalists were permitted by the management of the Georgian National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC) to inspect the US-funded Richard Lugar Center for Public Health and Research in Tbilisi, where the Pentagon is, according to Russian claims, running a secret biological weapons laboratory, after which the reporters were able to confirm that US specialists were working at the site, a Sputnik correspondent, who visited the lab, reported from the scene on Friday.
The Russian Defense Ministry on Thursday said that the Pentagon was running a secret biological weapons lab at the Lugar Center for Public Health and Research, located outside of Tbilisi. At a press conference on Friday, NCDC Director Amiran Gamkrelidze agreed to a request from a Sputnik correspondent to visit the laboratory, but the center later reversed its decision and refused to allow Russian media to the lab along with the Georgian ones. However, they were finally granted permission to visit it.
Paata Imnadze, the head of the NCDC scientific council, led the Russian journalists to the lab, showing and telling them how exactly the employees of the research center work.
The laboratory is located in a two-storey building. On the ground floor, there is the national collection of microorganisms. Imnadze said that taking pictures of this object is prohibited, "as it can be used unfavorably by possible attackers."
At the same time, journalists without cameras could see this territory. The research center resembles an office, with small lab rooms with transparent glass located near the walls, where the diagnostics of microorganisms is carried out.
"As you can see, there is a transparent system here. No one can do anything secretly. Cameras are installed all over the building," Imnadze said.
He said that in summer this year, when children from Russia fell ill during their holiday at a ski resort, it was in these rooms where Georgian specialists made an accurate diagnosis in a matter of hours. The children were urgently hospitalized in Tbilisi, their treatment was successful, Imnadze added.
The journalists also inspected the second floor of the building, in which a small part, according to Imnadze, was rented by US experts. At the moment, there are three US citizens working there.
"At the same time, none of them can begin to study anything without me being informed. Everything is controlled by the Georgian side. Naturally, the Georgian experts have access to this room. However, foreign specialists can do research only here," he said.
The official stressed that there were no other secret premises at the facility.
"This is the whole center, we have no basements and hidden rooms, otherwise I would have let you in," Imnadze told Sputnik.
Most of the employees that the agency's correspondent saw were women.
In September, former Georgian Minister of State Security Igor Giorgadze said he had addressed US President Donald Trump to investigate the activities of the US-funded Richard Lugar Center for Public Health and Research in Georgia which, the former official claims, might have carried out out lethal experiments related to Hepatitis C on humans. Giorgadze said he had information that 30 people had died in December 2015, and 43 more in April and August of 2016, all after being given treatment at the laboratory, with the causes of deaths unconfirmed.
Earlier this week, Maj. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the commander of the Russian Armed Forces' Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops, said the United States was using labs in Georgia, including those at the Lugar Center, tested toxic substances on local residents in attempts to research ways to deliver and unleash biological weapons agents in breach of international accords.
The Russian side has repeatedly expressed concern about the activities of the Pentagon involving placement of its biomedical labs in close proximity to Russian borders. In 2015, the Russian Foreign Ministry mentioned in this regard the Lugar lab hosting the US Army Medical Department's research unit. Moscow believes that US and Georgian authorities were trying to hide the true content and focus of the activities of the US Army's unit studying particularly dangerous infectious diseases.
Georgia and the United States have both denied Russia's claims in comments to Sputnik. Georgia's government envoy for ties with Russia Zurab Abashidze called the allegations absurd, while US Defense Department spokesman Eric Pahon said the center was owned and operated by Georgia's disease control center. Gamkrelidze refuted the claims on Friday as well.
