Secret laboratory: a new kind of pressure on Azerbaijan? Comment from Baku

The Russian state Rossiya-24 television channel aired a documentary alleging the existence of a secret NATO laboratory in Azerbaijan. According to the Azerbaijani political scientist, this statement should be considered as a new kind of pressure from Moscow on Baku.

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On January 22, the state-run Russian news channel Rossiya-24 aired an investigative documentary movie by well-known Russian TV journalist Arkady Mamontov called The Andromeda Strain. The film claims that, allegedly, biological laboratories, opened by the United States in countries of Soviet Union, have begun to operate along the perimeter of Russia in recent years. The author states that the Pentagon is investing millions of dollars into infrastructure, technology and research to study dangerous bacteria and viruses in other countries.

“What secret developments are being carried out in these laboratories? What threat do they pose to the inhabitants of the countries in which they are located? And why are microbiologists more often comparing these facilities with the military bases of the NATO bloc, which is getting closer and closer to the Russian border? The answers to these questions can be found in the documentary investigation of Arkady Mamontov”, the annotation to the film reads.

“Today, a network of such biological laboratories has been deployed – in Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia. It is a sort of biohazard belt around the borders of our country”, says Mamontov.

The authors of the investigation visited Armenia, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Ukraine, talked with local experts and showed these very biological laboratories on footage.

Azerbaijan is listed for the first time among those countries where such “American laboratories” exist.

Expert commentary

“Arkady Mamontov is one of many journalists who carry out orders from the Kremlin. As soon as the Kremlin takes aim at some country or event, another “journalistic investigation” is aired on the state television channels in Russia.

This time, Mamontov chose Azerbaijan as its target, which means that there was such an order from ‘above’. The film by Arkady Mamontov, shown on January 22 on the Rossiya-24 TV channel, tells us about the US biological laboratories located in the post-Soviet republics. And it is alleged that Azerbaijan also has similar laboratories.

Yes, there are many speculations about these laboratories. For example, they are alleged to be present in Georgia and Ukraine. But there is also news about the deployment of similar laboratories in the territories of countries friendly with Russia – in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and even in Armenia. The latter even opened the doors of this laboratory for Russian specialists.

Although Washington and its partners emphasize that these laboratories are engaged in scientific research, the Kremlin insists on the version of a serious threat emanating from such institutions. Russia considers everything dangerous for itself if it has been launched in cooperation with the United States and is located on the territories of the former republics of the USSR. This is why Russia is sending such “warning messages”.

Now Azerbaijan has been added to this list. There is not a single fact of the existence of a biological laboratory in Azerbaijan, it is impossible to hide it.

But for what reason, then, is the mouthpiece of the Kremlin spreading such false news? Probably, this is a new kind of pressure from Moscow on Baku”, Elkhan Shahinoglu, head of the Azerbaijani analytical center Atlas, commented on Arkady Mamontov’s statements.