U.S. Rejects Russian Accusations on Georgian Biolab
A U.S. diplomat rejected a top Russian medical official's assertion that biological arms activities were under way at a research site in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, Interfax reported on Monday.
Russian specialists are welcome to personally verify the peaceful nature of activities at the Richard G. Lugar Center for Public Health Research in Tbilisi, U.S. Ambassador to Georgia Richard Norland said.
Top Russian public health official Gennady Onishchenko accused Georgian medical and international affairs personnel of providing "hasty and unqualified comments" on the matter.
"There is a direct threat, of course. Say if you have a rifle, you would definitely not use it to conduct an orchestra playing a Vienna waltz," he told the news agency.
Onishchenko also oversees the Russian trade oversight agency Rospotrebnadzor, which last week stated that the facility "is not under the control of the Georgian authorities." The circumstance, he said, "does not allow open dialogue on the research being conducted there or on the risks related to this for health and well-being in the region."
