The Russian defence ministry claimed that the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID)—a unit of the US Army which is involved in advancing medical biological defense to protect the military and the country and provide medical capabilities to deter and defend against current and emerging biological threat agents—was involved in the illegal export of samples of the Ebola virus from Africa to the US.
Major General Alexey Rtischev, Deputy Head of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Forces, said representatives of US-based company Metabiota smuggled the samples from Africa and handed them over to the USAMRIID.
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According to a report by an international panel of experts involved in fighting the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, company personnel concealed the fact that Pentagon employees were involved in the work, he said.
"The main purpose of this activity was the isolation of virulent strains and their subsequent smuggling. As a result, samples of the Ebola virus were smuggled by representatives of the company and sent to the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases," he added.
He further said the nations involved in the US biological control system lose their sovereignty and become dependent on America.
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"The US government authorities and private contracting companies, including the so-called Big Pharma enterprises, are involved in cooperation with the relevant local ministries. The result of this selective support is the transition to American personnel training standards, transfer and generalization of information on the biological situation, the degradation of national health care systems, and the imposition of suppliers of medical equipment and medications," he said.