Russian Defense Ministry says a Pentagon-led laboratory is launched in Uzbekistan

Reconstruction of Pentagon-controlled laboratories in Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan continues, RIA news agency quoted Major-General Igor Kirillov, Chief of the RF Armed Forces' Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense (RChBD) Troops as saying.

“The Lugar Center is a small element of the US comprehensive military-biological program. The American side has become active in areas close to Russia, where Pentagon-led laboratories are operating. Reconstruction of laboratory corps in Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan is still in action,” Mr. Kirillov said.

According to Major-General, the main priority of their activity is to collect information on infectious diseases and to export national collections containing strains of pathogenic microorganisms.

Earlier, it was reported that former Georgian State Security Minister Igor Giorgadze, at a press conference in Moscow, had asked President Donald Trump to investigate reports that personnel at the Lugar Center may have engaged in experimentation on human test subjects, some of which he claims proved to be lethal. Mr. Giorgadze cited lab figures about the deaths of 24 people he said died in Dec. 2015 while being treated for hepatitis C. He claimed that in April and August 2016, another 30 and 13 people, respectively, had died, the cause of their deaths listed as "unknown," with no formal investigation carried out.