Putin Raises Concern About Bizarre Collection of White Russian Biodata With Western Council for Civil and Human Rights
On that Monday, Putin met with the Council for Civil Society and Human Rights. The discussion covered many topics: from the system of granting pardons to recycling, from the ways to guarantee voting rights to the living conditions of Muslim convicts in Russian prisons.
Putin was listening, taking a lot of notes, called some of the suggestions useful and important, but also openly disagreed with others. For example, when the Echo of Moscow radio station was made out to be a victim of the government and the atmosphere of hatred, supposedly fostered by the government.
Vladimir Putin: "You've mentioned Echo of Moscow. How is it relevant? Why are you talking about freedom of speech? It's a sick person who came from Israel. Right? He attacked the journalist. Echo of Moscow is financed by the government. You won't see that in any other country. Can you imagine such a radio station in Europe or in the US? It's impossible. Even the list that Russia Today and Sputnik were put on implies serious restrictions — it's not like what we do. These restrictions are not a slap on the wrist. They are administrative and financial policies".
That's true. Echo of Moscow is a "pet" radio station of the Russian government. It's a unique phenomenon on our planet. It's hard to imagine something like Echo of Washington, and other countries are yet to ask Russia for a franchise. By the way, the Presidential Council for Human Rights is also unique. Human rights activists in America don't have an opportunity to meet regularly with the US President and ask him aggressive questions for many hours, while the event airs live.
For example, about the prison conditions in the US or Guantanamo, or about the cops who kill hundreds of Americans every year right on the street, without batting an eyelash.
But let's get back to the Kremlin. Another subject suggested to the President by the activists is video surveillance at the polling places. Turns out, the interest for these streams is abnormally high in other countries. The traffic is largely directed that way. So the President was even asked whether it's not dangerous to sort of export the images of Russian citizens.
Putin, as often happens, gave a wider reply: "Talking about the images of our citizens, of our voters being collected by someone and used in some way... Images are not a big deal. But did you know that biological materials are being collected all over the country? And mind you, across different ethnic groups and geographical zones of Russia. And the question is — why are they doing this? That's purposeful and professional work. So we are an object of someone's huge interest".
For the activists, this was a new development, but the subject is out there, and our correspondent Aleksey Petrov has looked into it.
The President's words caused a turmoil in the world of science. Who and why is trying to export biological materials? But just a few days later came a confirmation — incredibly, from Pentagon. As it turns out, they even held a tender online. The military was interested in everything joint-related, as long as the donor comes from Russia.
- Would you consider samples from Ukraine?
- No, all samples (Synovial tissue and RNA samples) shall be collected from Russia and must be Caucasian. The Government will not consider tissue samples from Ukraine.
Cell research is conducted in scientific centers around the world.
Valery Ilyinsky, Genotek CEO: "There can be two purposes for collecting biological material for genetic research. First is the study of population genetics, and the second one is more practical — it's medical genetics. Doctors are searching for certain mutations characteristic for a certain population and determine their connection to the development of different diseases".
But doctors and scientists are not the only ones with an interest. There are also certain foreign entities. Last year, there was an attempt to export biological materials out of the country without papers. Supposedly, to study the influence of alcohol and drugs. Even local officials were involved.
Albert Duzhak, Murmansk Customs: "It was saliva. Around 430 samples. These samples were about to be exported to Norway. There were no documents submitted for clearance. It was the Ministry of Health of Murmansk Region which had an agreement with one of the research centers in Norway to study saliva samples of drivers".
The officials were fined but then local businesses joined the game. And now some company is trying to buy a shipment of biological materials. Murmansk Region has quite a few military facilities, the North Fleet is among them. And here's another example. This time it's an NGO in Chapaevsk, Samara Region. It expressed an interest in samples, under the pretense of studying the effect of harmful substances on men's health. Chapaevks is one of the chemical industry centers.
Another incident. A company registered in Saint Petersburg tried to ship 20,000 blood samples to the US. It's almost 250 kg of blood harvested in Nizhny Novgorod Region.
It may seem that biological materials are something complex and obscure. But actually, it's a key to finding out anything about any of us. Even when you're typing something on a keyboard, you leave small particles of sebum or microscopic drops of sweat on it. Then it's just technology.
You can't hide anything — age, nationality, potential diseases. And imagine this is an employee of a defense contractor or someone working in the nuclear industry, or in a secret research institution.
By analyzing data, intelligence agencies can understand what substances a person has been in contact with, what is their effect on the body and, most importantly, what is the goal of the research. In the end, even a sip of water can be a source of important information. Maybe that's why Pentagon is so active also around Russian borders, mostly in Ukraine.
Gennadiy Onishchenko, Member of the State Duma: "In the last 25 years, an entire system of military biological labs has been built around our country. First, they used our former Soviet institutes after an upgrade. But now, after that illegal puppet government came to power, they are building a powerful military bio facility near Kharkov".
A small town of Merefa in the Kharkov Region. Local residents tried to protest, but failed. American specialists have gained a foothold here. Scientists discuss if there ever will be a weapon against certain nations.
Konstantin Severinov, Professor at Skolkovo Institute: "A genetic weapon would have to affect a certain ethnic group in a specific way. Then you have to assume that people in that group have special genetic markers and they are different from other people by their genetic features. But since our motherland had so many guests during its long history, inventing a weapon that would kill me and you, but leave some John Smith alive, is impossible".
Pyotr Kamensky, Researcher at MSU: "Theoretically, this information can be used for some kind of military purpose. For example, if you have a group of people who all have a certain characteristic protein. This happens quite often. And if you find a certain molecule, which specifically neutralizes this protein, it will have a bad effect on these people. However, it will not affect people from other ethnic groups".
The information about diseases that affect whole cities or regions will help identify, as scientists call them, targets in the human body. They are basically a time bomb. And they are not covered by any conventions, such as Biological Weapons Convention. And then everything can be chalked up to bad environment, like it wasn't the Pentagon.
Gennady Onishchenko: "There will be no biological war. Because it's pointless. Nobody needs the land with anthrax spores on it. But biological sabotage that can destabilize the situation in the country are absolutely real and already in practice".
On the other hand, it's vital to continue this research, first of all, to develop Russian science.
Oleg Balanovskiy, PhD, Biology: "The concerns about this research resulting in something theoretically impossible could result in genetics being called the "whore of imperialism" again. And then someone would ban all research just in case".
These extremes, of course, lead nowhere. But what's really needed is a strict government regulation, especially now, when Russia looks so interesting to the pharma giants around the world who already settled down here.
Gennady Onishchenko: "In our country, there's a lot of absolutely legal clinical research of new pharmaceutical drugs— it's Western money only. Only. And today we can't control it with the norms and standards that we currently have".
Which means that new, modern laws are the "treatment" that should be developed as soon as possible. Aleksey Petrov, Anton Gubanov, Viktor Prikhodko, Viktor Mamaev, Aleksey Sysoev. Vesti News of the Week.