Russia says worldwide biological programs allow U.S. access to biowarfare agents

MOSCOW, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Washington's military biological projects around the world grant the United States access to potential biological weapon agents, said the Russian Defense Ministry on Monday.

The defense ministry studied the activities of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, particularly its role within two military biological projects, namely U-Pi-1 and U-Pi-2.

The Institute has foreign branches equipped with high-level isolation laboratories and a large network of divisions around the world, which are used for sampling and transporting the strains.

With its presence worldwide, the U.S. military is able "to gain access to epidemically significant variants of pathogens that are potential agents of biological weapons," Igor Kirillov, the head of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces of the Russian Armed Forces, said during a Monday briefing.

He said that these pathogen variants include the Marburg and Ebola viruses, malaria, and Rift Valley Fever.