The US made biological weapons in Ukraine. Birds were trained to bring diseases into Russia. The creation of Covid-19 was done by it. This year there has been an outbreak of monkeypox.
The United States has been accused of operating covert biological research programs to wreak havoc around the globe by some of the most outrageous and enduring lies that the Kremlin has spread since the war in Ukraine began.
The accusations have been dismissed by the US and others. The claims are still circulating. They have ebbed and flowed in international news reports thanks to China's diplomats and state media.
Russia has ordered an international forum to air its claims again. Russia has invoked the first formal hearing in a quarter-century because of violations of the Biological Weapons Convention, which bars the development and use of weapons made of biological toxins or pathogens.
The deputy chair of Russia's lower house of parliament said last month that the United States has opened and filled a military biological box. She is the leader of a parliamentary committee that is looking into American support for biological research laboratories.
Western officials and experts don't expect Russia to produce any evidence that supports the accusations. Russia will still make them if the past is any guide. Russia is likely to use the investigative session to give legitimacy to its claims, according to experts.
In April, Putin cited a network of Western bioweapons labs as one of the threats that forced Russia to act. The United States and its allies have been accused of being involved in the use of arms to fight Russian forces.
Pre-existing attitudes towards American dominance in foreign affairs have been affected by the accusations. The consequences have been to sow division and doubt, not necessarily to build support for Russia's invasion, but to blame the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The debate over the origins of Covid-19 and Russia's accusations about secret weapons production could affect confidence in genuine biological research.
Filippa Lentzos is an expert on biological threats and security at King's College London. It will undermine global bio safety efforts.
There was an outbreak of monkeypox in Russia in April. The United States supported four research laboratories in Nigeria where the epidemic began to spread, according to the head of the Russian Army.
According to research conducted by the New York Times, there were over 4,000 articles in Russian media in the months after the general said something.
Some of the Russian reports pointed to a simulation in 2021 at the annual gathering of defense officials and experts from around the world as proof of a conspiracy. A hypothetical monkeypox outbreak that started in a fictional country called Brinia and caused 270 million deaths was the result of a simulation.
The advocacy group that designed the exercise, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, put out a statement in May to make sure they didn't confuse the Russian reports.
There is no reason for us to believe that the current outbreak is caused by an engineered pathogen. The current outbreak doesn't have the potential to spread as quickly as the fictional pathogen in our scenario or to cause such a high case fatality rate.
Russia's accusations have appeared in news reports in Africa and the Middle East, regions that have become diplomatic battlegrounds between the United States and Russia.
As part of its information battle with the United States, the state media in China frequently amplify Russian claims about the war with Ukraine and about secret biological weapons research.
The internet in China has a tendency to circulate conspiracy theories about American involvement in monkeypox.
The age of social media has made Russia's efforts to push the claims about biological weapons more accessible.
The Russian strategy is a "fire hose of falsehood" that inundates the public with huge numbers of claims that are designed to distract attention and cause confusion and distrust as much as to provide an alternative point of view.
The strategy goes back to the cold war.
The K.G.B. planted an anonymous letter in an Indian newspaper in 1983, claiming that the United States manufactured the virus that causes AIDS in an experiment at Fort Detrick, Md.
The false claim appeared on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather. Gorbachev was warned by the Reagan administration that it would hurt relations with the West.
Russia's propaganda model has been adapted to take advantage of technology and available media in ways that would have been impossible during the Cold War.
Christopher Paul, one of the authors, said in an interview that the strategy can sometimes be persuasive to people who have preconceived biases.
Even though the idea of the C.I.A. causing AIDS in Africa has been discredited, there are still people who think so. Not a lot but some.
Russia's accusations sometimes have a relationship to facts.
Russia was concerned about U.S. efforts to establish closer defense and research ties with several of its neighbors.
The United States has given millions of dollars to those countries. After the Cold War, the remnants of Soviet-era nuclear, chemical and biological weapons were supposed to be dismantled. Supporting biological research laboratories is important to monitor and prevent diseases from spreading.
Russia made false claims about a lab funded by the US in Georgia.
The State Department said that Russia wanted to distract from its invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has accused the UN Security Council of being involved in the war. Izumi Nakamitsu, the U.N. under secretary general and high representative for disarmament affairs, twice told the Council that there was no evidence of a biological weapons program in Ukraine.
Russian officials promised to give proof of the secret weapons research in Ukraine, but have yet to do so.
Russia will make a presentation to the representatives of the nations that have signed the convention. The US will be able to respond later in the week. Nations can state their positions on Friday because the treaty has no verification or enforcement provisions.
According to Dr. Lentzos of King's College London, many countries may be unwilling to publicly contradict Russia or China because of the format.
In 1997, Cuba accused the United States of spraying insects over the country's crops in order to cause a devastating outbreak.
Several nations submitted written observations about Cuba's claims after the proceedings were not made public. Cuba had support from only one country, North Korea. Eight countries concluded that there was no link. It was not possible to determine, according to China and Vietnam. Russia didn't reply.
The majority of people just want to sit on the fence. It could hurt their interests if they took a side. The big question is not whether or not these guys believe it. To what extent are they motivated to speak out about it?
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