Putin Attacks Lugar Lab, Speaks About Alarming Genetic Researches
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Monday, October 22
Russian President Vladimir Putin has attacked the US-built, Tbilisi-based Lugar lab by saying in Sochi that Americans are allegedly conducting genetic researches in the center and the studies aim to produce substances ‘totally changing the human appearance.”
“If the statement by former Georgian security official Igor Giorgadze [who has political asylum in Russia as he was accused of organizing a coup in Georgia in 1990ies) are right and the researches are being conducted, this is alarming,” Putin says.
Before Putin made the comment, dozens of Russian officials have been speculating about “illegal experiments “at the Lugar lab,” which have led to “deaths of people in Georgia.”
Tbilisi says that such statements are groundless and invites Russian experts and medics in Georgia to personally see the lab and familiarize themselves with the activities of three laboratories of the Lugar Centre, which opened in 2013 and is now fully controlled, owned and financed by the Georgian government.
Health Minister David Sergeenko stated last Friday that his body has addressed the World Health Organisation to send a mission in Georgia, which will completely study the activities of the Lugar Centre.
“If Russian experts express wish to get involved in the mission, they will have the opportunity. The mission will be tasked to make its conclusions regarding the activities of the Lugar lab,” Sergeenko said,” Sergeenko said.
The minister also said that Russian experts have refused to participate in the upcoming international event at the Lugar Centre in mid- November, which would have provided an opportunity for them to learn more about the lab.
Georgian Health Ministry official Amiran Gamkrelidze stated that it is false as if Americans own and control the lab.
“The laboratory is fully controlled by the Georgian Health Ministry and receives funding from the Georgian state budget,” Gamkrelidze said.
He said that all clinical-laboratory diagnostic and scientific research requiring the use of a BSL-3 laboratory under international rules is carried out in the Lugar center and “only Georgian researchers have access to the BSL-3 space.”
A biosafety level (BSL) is a set of biocontainment precautions needed to isolate dangerous biological agents in an enclosed laboratory facility. The levels of containment range from the lowest biosafety level 1 (BSL-1) to the highest at level 4 (BSL-4).
“The Lugar Center is a certified Biosafety Level-3 facility that performs a unique role in identifying especially dangerous pathogens, research and public health for the region,” Gamkrelidze added.
The Lugar Lab named after ex-US Senator Richard Lugar was opened in 2013 in Tbilisi.
