US Embassy say Russian reports on Lugar Centre in Tbilisi are ‘nonsense’
The US Embassy in Tbilisi says that Russian speculations about the Lugar Centre in Tbilisi are part of the Russian propaganda campaign. Photo: US Embassy press office.
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The US Embassy in Georgia has responded to Russian allegations and reports about supposed illegal experiments conducted at the US-built, Tbilisi-based Lugar Center and stated that those accusations are “nonsense and typical of Russian misinformation and propaganda campaigns.”
A special statement by Acting US Ambassador to Georgia Elisabeth Rood reads that Russia has refused to participate in the upcoming, international medical event in Tbilisi which will once again prove the transparency of the facility.
I note that Georgia, with German support, has organised an international ‘peer review compliance exercise’ of the Lugar Center to be conducted in November. The Russians have declined to participate.
For further inquiries into the Lugar Center’s actual mission or more information on the peer review compliance exercise, I would refer you to the Richard Lugar Center for Public Health Research in Tbilisi; I’m sure they would be happy to discuss the good work they do there,” the statement reads.
Commander of the Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence Troops of Russia Igor Kirilov said at a special briefing last week illegal experiments have been made on humans in the Lugar lab which led to the death of more than 73 people in 2015 and 2016.
Russians have stated that since the opening of the facility in 2013, the Lugar Centre has been fully controlled by Americans and used for their interests in the region.
The government of Georgia says in response that the centre Georgian Health Ministry has full ownership of the facility and as of 2018 the activities of the centre are financed by the Georgia state budget.
The construction of the centre was launched in 2004 based on agreements signed between Georgia and US in 1997 and 2002.
Head of the National Centre of Disease Control (NCDC) of Georgia Amiran Gamkrelidze says that recent allegations of the Russian media and state officials regarding illegal experiments at the Tbilisi-based, US-built Lugar Laboratory are “unimaginable falsehoods and slander.”
Georgia’s Minister of Health David Sergeenko is meeting with politicians and health experts in the United States. He held a meeting with Senator Richard Lugar and discussed Georgia-US cooperation in the field of healthcare.
The head of Georgia’s National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC) says the potential for the Zika virus to spread to Georgia was small but there was a "theoretical” chance it could happen.
Georgia plays an important role in disease detection and the recent establishment of a state of the art biolab in Georgia will only aid this, said Georgia’s Prime Minister while visiting the Richard Lugar National Centre for Disease Control and Public Health today.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says that he has heard information about genetic research being conducted at the US-built, Tbilisi-based Lugar Centre and added that if the information is valid the news is “alarming.”
International experts from 17 countries are exploring how the US-built, Tbilisi-based Lugar Center works amid Russian allegations and reports about supposed illegal experiments conducted at the center.
At a meeting with the diplomatic corps in the Kakheti region of Georgia the Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia thanked the United States for its contribution in founding the Lugar Laboratory in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.
A group of civic activists have dumped hundreds of flyers using a drone with inscriptions and the image of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin near the Stalin Museum in his hometown, Gori. The first page of the flyer is an excerpt from Joseph Stalin’s letter sent to Vadimir Lenin written in February 28, 1921.