Russia has accused the US of developing bioweapons in Ukraine. This accusation came after US officials admitted there were “biodefense” labs in Ukraine that were basically run by the US. The US said it was worried that these biodefense labs might fall into Russian hands, which would enable them to use bioweapons against Ukraine.

Let’s unpack this a little.

In 1972, the whole world agreed to a UN convention banning the production of bioweapons. 183 countries signed the convention.

But there was one problem. There was no verification clause.

In other words, this was merely an honor system.

Further, the convention allowed “biodefense” efforts – basically efforts to protect a country against bioweapons.

Indeed, the US has a massive biodefense lab infrastructure, started in 2002, located in Fort Detrick, Maryland.

Now the problem is that moving from “defense” to “offense” is not very hard. If it were, the US government would not be so worried about its labs falling into Russian hands.

So, the other question is, is the US secretly violating the 1972 treaty and also exploring offensive uses of these pathogens?

The answer is, we don’t know, and we cannot know, because these programs are classified, and the 1972 convention does not provide for any verification.

So all we have is the US government’s word that it is not developing offensive weapons at these labs.

It depends on how much you trust the US government.

Just remember that they have lied to us before. Such as in Iraq in 2003.

So, do I trust them? No, I personally do not. I think the Russian claims might be true. You might say, that is speculation. Yes. But in this area, everything is grey.

And, regardless of whether the US is actively developing bioweapons or not, the worry they have that the Russians can use their “defense” technology to develop “offense” weapons easily tells me that if they so wish, the US could easily use their own defense capability to develop bioweapons.

And it is simple logic if you think of it. If you want to defend against a possible bioweapon, you must first create that bioweapon. Only then can you figure out how to defeat it. So every biodefense tool must carry with it the knowledge of creating bioweapons. And it is not enough to just defend against the pathogens that are known today. You must anticipate new pathogens that the enemy might create. So you must first create these deadlier pathogens so that you can find ways to defeat them.

In other words, these “biodefense” labs are simply a legal way of developing bioweapons technology and getting around the legal requirements of the 1972 treaty. And therein lies the tale of US apprehensions and Russian accusations.