Bioweapons allegation against Ukraine: a Russian disinformation

Abstruse theories about secret bioweapons laboratories in the USA predate the corona pandemic. Now they are experiencing their revival. Shortly after Russia attacked Ukraine, the theory circulated on social media that Russia wanted to take down a US-run “bioweapons laboratory network” in Ukraine.

In less than two weeks, this conspiracy theory has made it from a dark niche on the web, like the conspiracy theorist movement QAnon, into the mainstream. Not only that: at the request of Russia, the United Nations Security Council, often referred to as the most powerful body in the world, held an emergency meeting on Friday evening on the subject.

Bioweapons exposed as conspiracy theory in Ukraine

Since Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry has been claiming that the United States had biological weapons of mass destruction manufactured in Ukraine. The Russian government has not shared convincing evidence of this. For this she receives support from China. A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday urged the US to release information about the biological laboratories in Ukraine it is said to operate there. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has long spread conspiracy theories about US-funded biological laboratories abroad in order to distract attention from the origin of the corona virus in Wuhan.

The international magazine for security policy “Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists” comes to the conclusion, like many other fact-checkers: The relevant biological laboratories in Ukraine are part of the American Biohazard Reduction Program. The program started in the 1990s to expertly treat the remnants of the former Soviet Union’s weapons of mass destruction. Russia was also part of the program for years.

The laboratories in Kazakhstan, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics were tasked with seizing dangerous material from the Soviet Union’s biological weapons program. Over time, however, her focus shifted to public health. The US has helped establish centers for the prevention and control of infectious diseases in many countries around the world, including China.

From the “troll factories of the Russian government” to ZDF

Both the American and Ukrainian governments have rejected Russia’s subordination. The United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO) also refuted the allegations: The WHO is “not aware of any activities by the Ukrainian government that contradict their international treaty obligations, including chemical or biological weapons,” said a UN spokesman in New York.

Nevertheless, the conspiracy theory, which has been refuted several times, reached a wide range. This means that mainstream media also feel obliged to react, says Roland Imhoff, professor of social and legal psychology at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, who researches conspiracy theories.

But when mainstream organizations embrace conspiracy theories, they sometimes unwittingly lend them more legitimacy. ZDF presented Russia’s targeted disinformation campaign in an article on his website as if it were testimony against testimony – Russia says this, the US says that. “In a war I would be very careful to reproduce claims made by the respective sides without classification,” says Imhoff. War actors always wage an information war – and “one of the most productive producers of conspiracy theories are the Russian government’s troll factories,” says Imhoff.

The skeptics are also encouraged by realistic fears, for example that Russian bombing raids could trigger a biological catastrophe. So reported the Reuters news agency on Friday that the WHO should have asked the laboratories in Ukraine to destroy all pathogens that potentially threatened to spread to the population. “The WHO would not say when it made the recommendation, nor did it provide details on the types of pathogens or toxins housed in the Ukrainian labs,” Reuters wrote.

This is how conspiracy theories gradually make the leap into the mainstream. “Conspiracy theories tell a better and more interesting story. There is always one or more villains in the background,” says Imhoff. This takes some of the threat out of the situation and promises control. Because if there is a villain, his handiwork can also be put down.

China uses the conspiracy theory as a red herring

War actors and their allies who have a keen interest in a disinformation campaign know the appeal of conspiracy theories. The motives of the Russian government for taking up the bioweapons theory are obvious: They want to justify their attack. The US government says the Russians may be using the allegations as an excuse to use such weapons of mass destruction themselves.

China’s government also has strong motives for spreading the theory of US-run biological laboratories in Ukraine. It provides the desired distraction on Chinese social media from the obvious that no one is allowed to talk about: that Russia is waging a cruel war that has already forced more than two million Ukrainians to flee. And so China’s government is deflecting its own responsibility by pointing the finger at the US.