Outbreak of Monkeypox: 'Made in lab' disinformation campaign pushed by Russia’

According to a Russian disinformation campaign, the current monkeypox pandemic sweeping Europe was spread by US facilities in Nigeria. This was the same assertion made by Russia months before when the US was accused of having military-biological facilities in Ukraine. According to experts, Russian President Vladimir Putin made this deceitful assertion as part of a possible false flag operation to legitimize the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine. 

According to the Kremlin, the monkeypox virus was propagated by "four US-operated biological laboratories in Nigeria." Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia's Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Defense Troops, told Sputnik, a Russian state-owned news agency, that the US has four biological facilities in Nigeria.

Mr. Kirillov stated in a briefing that, while the WHO decided that the current strain of monkeypox virus originated in Nigeria, the country is actually another state where the United States operates biological laboratories.

He then displayed news headlines generated by a 2021 Munich Security Conference-Nuclear Threat Initiative simulation of the spread of a bioengineered, highly fatal form of monkeypox. He described the incident as "a strange coincidence" that would need to be confirmed by experts.

He then requested that the WHO investigate the actions of US bio laboratories in Nigeria, stating that the US had repeatedly violated biosafety rules and evidence of careless storage of hazardous biomaterials.