SOCHI, June 10. /TASS/. The West’s military biological activities constitute a security threat to Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said.
"For quite a while, Russia has been expressing serious concern about the military biological activities of Western countries, which directly involve military officials and take place in laboratories outside those countries, particularly in close proximity to Russia’s borders," the senior diplomat noted at the opening of the Fifth International Scientific and Practical Conference dubbed "Global Threats to Biological Security. Problems and Solutions."
"We see such activities, which are most often carried out through affiliated organizations and private companies that act as contractors, as a national security threat," Ryabkov underlined.
He pointed out that the reports that Western countries provided every year as a confidence-building measure related to the Biological Weapons Convention "contain information neither on the programs and projects that are implemented outside the national territory nor on their funding." "Our numerous calls for clarifications about such activities remain without a proper, substantive response," Ryabkov noted.
