A bizarre conspiracy theory, backed by Russia as well as China and pro-Trump conspiracy theorists QAnon, is taking center stage in the diplomatic arena. 

While fighting has been raging in Ukraine for more than two weeks, Dmitry Polianski, Russia's deputy ambassador to the UN, convened the Security Council on Friday, March 11, to discuss the issue of... "biological military activities of the United States in Ukraine".

Real laboratories for fake biological weapons

In hollow, the Russian diplomat accuses Washington of developing biological weapons in research centers in Ukraine.

This is not the first time since the start of the Ukrainian crisis that Moscow has put this far-fetched thesis on the table.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in early March that he had proof that "the Pentagon has developed pathogens in two military laboratories in Ukraine". 

As early as January 2022, the US Department of Defense felt compelled to post a video on YouTube to respond to the wave of rumors about alleged US military experiments in "secret" laboratories on the border between Russia and Ukraine. 

The United States acknowledges having helped establish dozens of research laboratories in countries of the former Soviet Union and continues to fund them.

But ironically, all of these facilities were intended to help destroy the remnants of the USSR's nuclear and chemical arsenals after the fall of the communist regime.

These scientific centers are now used to monitor the emergence of new epidemics.

Above all, there is nothing "secret" about the installations and there are even very public lists of the places where they are located, such as in Ukraine.

They are also 100% managed by the governments of the countries on whose soil these laboratories are located.

The United States is only financing, in part, the equipment.

>> To read also on France 24: For the linguist Patrick Sériot, "Vladimir Putin makes fun of the fate of Russian speakers in Ukraine"

Explanations which, as often with conspiracy theories, were not enough to turn off the misinformation tap.

In this case, it would even tend to sink ever stronger and to make followers well beyond the Russian borders.

China, as early as February 4, had stressed the importance of being able to visit in "complete transparency" the scientific facilities in Ukraine "where the United States conducts its research for military purposes".

Since then, major Chinese media such as the Global Times have not missed an opportunity to offer a platform to Russian officials who promote this conspiracy theory.

China finds its account

Yevgeniy Golovchenko, a specialist in Russian disinformation campaigns at the University of Copenhagen, is not surprised by China's support for these rumors around laboratories in Ukraine.

"We must not forget that there have already been lively exchanges between Beijing and Washington about secret laboratories during the Covid-19 pandemic," he reminds France 24. 

A reference to the controversy around the origin of the Sars-Cov-2 virus: while some Western conspirators believe it was made in a laboratory in Wuhan, China in return accused the US military of have developed.

For Beijing, this "new" conspiracy theory is timely.

It allows China to show support for its "friend" Vladimir Putin without committing itself too openly to the invasion of Ukraine, believes Yevgeniy Golovchenko.

At the same time, these rantings go in the direction of Chinese propaganda about Sars-Cov-2.

Beijing hopes to demonstrate that if Washington is able to develop biological weapons in hiding under Russian noses, why didn't the Americans have developed a dangerous virus in another of their "secret labs"?

But this Russian disinformation has also found relays in the heart of the United States.

The QAnonists, those conspiracy theorists who believe Donald Trump is going to save them from a Satanist plot to seize power in the United States, were among the first to justify Russia's invasion of Ukraine. as an attempt by Moscow to destroy dangerous military laboratories. 

People close to former US President Donald Trump, such as Steve Bannon, his former strategy adviser, and Republican Senator Marco Rubio then demanded an explanation from the White House about the activity in these Ukrainian laboratories.

Colorado beetles poisoned with chemical weapons

This new "axis of disinformation" is beginning to seriously worry Joe Biden's entourage.

Jen Psaki, the spokeswoman for the White House, very officially warned Russia and China against “the propagation of these completely erroneous ideas”. 

Why is the Biden administration so worried about yet another conspiracy theory when Moscow has invented dozens since the start of the invasion in Ukraine?

First, because Washington has a sense of history. 

Moscow has never stopped accusing Washington of secretly developing biological weapons.

This has been the red thread of Russian propaganda since the start of the Cold War in 1949, explains Milton Leitenberg, an American specialist in weapons of mass destruction, in a study on the history of this form of disinformation, published in 2021. This obsession began in 1950 when Moscow suggested that the United States was sending beetles carrying a new virus to poison potato crops in East Germany. 

>> To read also on France 24: Crisis in Ukraine: place for uninhibited low-cost disinformation from Moscow

And above all, Russia has been very effective in its efforts to promote this vision of the United States that would chain viruses… Their most important campaign in this direction, carried out from 1985 to the end of the 2000s, “consisted of making believe that Washington was the source of the AIDS virus in order to target the African and black American populations", recalls Yevgeniy Golovchenko.

This thesis has appeared in "articles in more than 2,000 newspapers in 25 countries since 1985", notes Milton Leitenberg.

In his study, he recalls that important figures in the African-American community have publicly adhered to this conspiracy theory "like Will Smith, Bill Cosby and [director] Spike Lee".

This conspiracy theory also allows Moscow to make the United States the real enemy of this war.

"This thesis presents Ukraine as a simple territory on which Russia is fighting to put an end to dangerous American activities", maintains Yevgeniy Golovchenko.

For the Russian authorities, this would be a way of justifying its war to a Russian population which considers the Ukrainians as a friendly people.

Finally, the Biden administration fears that this increasingly frequent recourse to this conspiracy theory is a way for Vladimir Putin to prepare the ground for the use by the Russian army of chemical weapons.

The next step for Moscow could be "to use this thesis to mount a 'false flag' operation [to cause damage while posing as the enemy] in order to justify the use of biological or chemical weapons in Ukraine" , underlined the White House. 

The Russian army would thus be preparing to fabricate from scratch an "incident" involving so-called American biological weapons.

Impossible to know if the Kremlin has such an idea in mind, underlines Yevgeniy Golovchenko.

But in terms of propaganda, it would make sense.

"For the moment the Russian authorities continue to affirm that it is only a question of a limited military operation in Ukraine and it is forbidden to speak of war in Russia. But the longer the fighting lasts, the more the authorities will have to difficult to keep this line. They will have to find a justification to switch to a rhetoric of total war", summarizes this specialist.

And what could be more effective than accusing the enemy of using dirty weapons?

The summary of the

France 24 week invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 app

google-play-badge_FR