On April 23, 2025, Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus posted recordings to their Telegram channel in which they talked with Georgia’s fifth president, Salome Zourabichvili; the former Public Defender of Georgia, Ucha Nanuashvili; and U.S. Congressman Joe Wilson, while pretending to be Russian chess player Garry Kasparov, and Ukraine’s fifth president, Petro Poroshenko. Georgian pro-government...
On February 21, during the Sezoni TV program “Sum-Up of the Day with Nikoloz Mzhavanadze,” host Nikoloz Mzhavanadze spoke about the Lugar Laboratory. The broadcast also featured a clip from a program by Igor Giorgadze, a former Minister of State Security of Georgia, in which he also discussed the laboratory. Mzhavanadze and Giorgadze made several...
The Richard Lugar Center for Public Health Research is often a target of disinformation and conspiracy theories regarding its purpose and activities by Russian media, as well as Georgian actors having close ties with the Kremlin and pursuing Russian interests. On August 3, tit was reported that the United States of America had cut off...
On May 16, during the program of the pro-Russian organization “Solidarity for Peace”, political scientist Giorgi Iremadze stated that sanctions can be imposed legitimately only by the United Nations, and sanctions imposed by individual countries or associations like the European Union are hence, illegal. The claim that only the UN has the legitimate right to...
On November 14, a Georgian language Facebook user published a post in the Facebook group “Antilab-Georgia,” according to which the Slovak publication Hlavný dennik talked about the dangers associated with biolaboratories operated by the US in various countries. The Slovak outlet Hlavny Dennik published the article “Biological weapons in American laboratories threaten the existence of...
On October 9, 2023, a Georgian-language Facebook user published a post, according to which a letter signed by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was leaked on the Internet. The letter is addressed to King Philip VI of Spain and asks the...
On August 12-15, 2023, a voice recording of the physicist, engineer, and inventor, Nikola Tesla, was distributed on social media (1, 2, 3). According to the authors of the post, Tesla says in the video that free energy was hidden from the world by the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, and the Kabbalah in order to get rich...
On August 6, 2023, Koba Kusiani, the chairman of the “Euro-Asian Alliance” organization, published a post on Facebook, according to which the father of the founder of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, Eugen Schwab, was a member of the German Nazi Party and the Third Reich and a director of the industrial company Escher...
On July 25, 2023, a Georgian-speaking Facebook account published a photo of Barbie Baphomet, arguing that the creators of Barbie offer this kind of toy to children. On July 26, 2023, the Russian-language page Умный Журнал, as well as Russian-language Facebook users (1, 2, 3) published a video in which a giant Barbie gets out...
On June 2, 2023, a fragment of the interview with the Iranian media – Press TV by the American ex-lieutenant, Scott Bennett, was published in the Facebook group “Antilab-Georgia.” Bennett claims that biological weapons were being created on the territory of Ukraine under the leadership of the US. According to Bennett, this process started in...
For a number of years now, the Kremlin media has been voicing and amplifying the disinformation about dangerous experiments being conducted in the Lugar Laboratory in Georgia. On February 24, Tristan Tsitelashvili, a past convict for military treason, spoke on this topic to the Russian propaganda media – Izvestiya, claiming that the military personnel sent...
On January 30th, 2022, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological defence forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, claim at a briefing that “in the course of the special operation,” the Russian military obtained more than 20,000 documents related to the creation of components of biological weapons...
On December 13th, the portal “Georgia First” published a Georgian translation of an article by the US-sanctioned organization “Strategic Culture Foundation” about former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, titled “Merkel recalls how the US and NATO planned war in Ukraine against Russia.” According to the publication, “the comments of the former German Chancellor reveal that the...
On November 26th, 2022, Kremlin propaganda media ‘Channel One’ aired another story about the “military biological activities of the Pentagon” conducted in the post-Soviet countries. The story alleged that a particularly dangerous strain of African swine fever has spread from Georgia, despite the fact that the virus is not endemic to the region. The story...
On October 12th, 2022, Koba Kusiani, the chairman of the “Euro-Asian Alliance,” published a screenshot of the caricature on the cover of the Spanish satirical magazine EL JUEVES. The caricature depicts the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The same image was disseminated by the Russian-language accounts as well (1,2,3), claiming that the caricature concerns the...
On September 19th, 2022, Russian state-controlled media, including Channel One, РИА Новости, TASS, Правда, Московский Комсомолец, Sputnik-Abkhazia reported that US officials have admitted conducting biological experiments on low-income citizens and patients of psychiatric clinics in Ukraine. Russian and Belarusian media also reported that the US admitted exporting pathogenic strains from Ukraine. Russian media has disseminated...
On February 21st, 2021, the Facebook user “Maia Dvalidze” published a post that allegedly lists the crimes committed by different governments of Georgia. Among the entries, one can find the spread of African swine fever in Georgia in 2007 and the invasion of pheasants in hazelnut plantations in 2015. As of July 27th, 2022, the...
On July 4, Russian Channel One’ aired a story (1,2,3,) about the alleged demands for an investigation into the activities of the American laboratories in the territory of Georgia, in particular, the Richard Lugar Laboratory of Tbilisi. The story talks about various “dangerous experiments” being conducted in the Lugar laboratory and in the “American laboratories”...
On May 15th, the Facebook user ‘Nino Sharabidze’ published an alleged quote from the famous American businessman David Rockefeller. The post ascribes to Rockefeller the following words: “It is necessary to organize world processes in such a way that the Arabs kill the Arabs, the Slavs kill the Slavs. We cannot allow the third world...
Following the end of February 2022, the Russia-Ukraine war became the new focus of Georgian anti-vaxxers as they started disseminating Russian-backed conspiracy theories and disinformation. Facebook accounts that oppose vaccination, on the one hand, seek to justify Russian military intervention in Ukraine, presenting the war as an operation to free Ukraine of nationalists and perversion,...
On March 23-24th, the pro-Kremlin channel “Obieqtivi” aired a story about the Richard Lugar Laboratory of Tbilisi. Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzieva and American journalist Jeffrey Silverman argued that dangerous experiments are being conducted on soldiers at the Lugar Laboratory in Georgia, while the laboratory itself is engaged in illegal activities. The story does not provide...
On March 9th, Facebook user Irakli Zakareishvili published a post based on the press service of the Russian Chemical and Radiological Defense Forces, claiming that one of the species of “Marmorated Stink Bug” – Halyomorpha Halys, which has had a devastating impact on the ecosystem and the economy, was created in Lugar Lab of Tbilisi....
On January 24th, Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva published an article on her blog dilyana.bg entitled: “Documents expose US biological experiments on allied soldiers in Ukraine and Georgia”. The English-language article claims that 4,400 soldiers in Ukraine and 1,100 in Georgia were involved in a potentially deadly experiment funded by the Pentagon and that their deaths...
On March 12th, Giorgi Kardava, Irakli and Shota Martinenko, the hosts of the far-right TV channel “Alt-Info”, talked about biological laboratories in Ukraine and Georgia, claiming that: US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said that the destruction of research materials in American laboratories in Ukraine is accelerated so that these materials do not fall...
On February 26th, the Russian-language media rusnext.ru, eer.ru, everything.kz, cont.ws reported on the alleged development of dangerous biological weapons in American laboratories based in Ukraine, noting that in February 2022 in Kyiv and Odesa, it was planned to open two American laboratories, which was prevented by the “special operation” of Russia. Identical information was published...
On March 5, Russian-language media «Аргументы и Факты» [Arguments and Facts] (aif.ru), vesti.ru, and gazeta.ru reported that the Ukrainian side, in particular the Azov Battalion, had bombed a residential building in Mariupol. The articles disseminated by the above-mentioned media outlets cited the leader of the “Donetsk People’s Republic,” Denis Pushilin, as their primary source. The...
On February 18th, 2022, Russian online outlets Московский Комсомолец and Tehnowar.ru published articles about foreign-run military laboratories in Ukraine, according to which the United States controls 15 Biolabs in Ukraine. Московский Комсомолец’s article has been circulating on Facebook since February 18th. The propaganda media Ren TV has been writing about the potential biological threat from...
The Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC) has become the center of attention after the alleged state security files on clergy were leaked on September 12. The alleged leaked documents that were covered by the Georgian media outlets revealed the supposed personal information of clergymen, including past activities and connections to Russia. The previous mapping research analyzed...
In September-October, the Lugar Laboratory once again sparked the interest of the Russian media (YouTube channel Military Arsenal, Svpessa.ru) and Georgian pro-Kremlin sources (Georgia and the World, Beka Vardosanidze, Facebook account Lasha Modebadze). During this period, the aforementioned sources made the following new allegations directed against the Richard Lugar Center for Public Health Research: Military Arsenal – Военный...
On August 18th, the Facebook user Naira Sharubanashvili shared a video, claiming that the coronavirus pandemic is a spectacle aimed to exterminate the population and take total control over the world. According to the user, the mastermind behind the plan is the secret organisation called the “Committee of 300.” The video prepared by the “People’s...
On July 27th, Chinese state media New China TV published a video on YouTube, which showcases American laboratories seen from the satellite. The video claims that the US owns biochemical laboratories in 25 countries, which conduct dangerous experiments and may even become the source of global pandemics. (Ambien) The mentioned video, along with the...
On July 20th, Sputnik Ossetia has published an article with the title: “KGB has linked the cases of the African Plague with the working of the Lugar Laboratory in Georgia.” The statement was shared by the State Security Committee of the de facto Republic of the occupied South Ossetia, which claims that in July, in...
The statement of Tbilisi Pride regarding the planned events on July 1-5 aimed at protecting the LGBTQ+ rights (including the Pride March planned on July 5th on Rustaveli Ave.) was followed by violent, homophobic and anti-Western messages by hate groups. The following report consists of two parts, which, on the one hand, analyze the messages...
Since 2015, the practices of budgetary service contracts allocation with media outlets spreading hate speech and directly or indirectly connected with Russia remain one of the main study areas of Media Development Foundation (MDF). While examining the recent data of 2020-2021, MDF has uncovered a new outlet named Spacesnews, which is characterized by a partially...
On April 7, Facebook account Lasha Modebadze published the post stating that the president of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili introduced amendments to the healthcare law in April 2019, and the pandemic spectacle started at the end of 2019. Attached to the post is the screenshot of the April 2, 2019 amendments to the Law on Public...
On July 21 Sakinformi, an online portal, released an interview of its editor-in-chief, Arno Khidirbegishvili with Russian news agency REX, according to which U.S. soldiers brought AIDS virus to the United States from Vietnam and it was created in the chemical laboratories of the Pentagon to conduct experiments on the Vietnamese. Conspiracy theories about artificial origin of...
On February 11, Facebook account Lasha Modebadze, which apparently is a fake profile, published an article headlined “Is the Lugar Lab linked to the coronavirus “pandemic”?” Later, he shared the same article to Facebook group “პლუტოკრატია და ახალი მსოფლიო წესრიგი” (Plutocracy and New World Order). The text, which promotes conspiracy theories about artificial origin of...
On February 10, 2021, Facebook page “ბიბლიის მორწმუნე ქრისტიანები” (The Bible Believing Christians) published a post, according to which the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security that is allegedly financed by Bill Gates has developed a new pandemic scenario.” The page claims that the Center’s SPARS Pandemic plan will be implemented in 2025-2028 after the...
On January 27, Facebook account Lasha Modebadze, presumably a fake profile, published a photo of David Rockefeller together with his words. According to the quote, David Rockefeller stated that “All that we need is a right major crisis and nations will accept the new world order”. Illustration depicting Rockefeller’s words and a photo cites pro-Kremlin...
On 12 January 2021, Facebook page ფაქტები და მოსაზრებები shared a video address of Koba Kuprashvili recorded on 11 January. In the video Kuprashvili criticized restrictions imposed due to coronavirus in Germany and Georgia as well as Covid-19 vaccines. Kuprashvili claimed that the vaccine accelerated the spread of virus and increased the number of cases...
The pro-Russian Alliance of Patriots party has joined Georgia’s major opposition parties in boycotting the new Parliament and demanding repeat elections. However, four MPs from the party’s proportional list – businessmen Avtandil Enukidze, David Zilpimiani, Pridon Injia and Zaza Mikadze – decided to take up their mandates; later, on January 9, they set...
Over the past years, information warfare has been gaining recognition as a major global threat, particularly due to its weaponization by state actors. It is widely believed that tools such as disinformation and propaganda particularly flourish in polarized and fractured societies. This makes countries and regions with longtime conflicts especially susceptible to their malign influence....
On April 20, 2020, Arno Khidirbegishvili, editor-in-chief of pro-Kremlin online media outlet, Sakinformi, shared on his Facebook page an article published by the same media outlet titled “Sensation! Georgian analyst solved the mystery of the coronavirus – Khidirbegishvili proved to be right.” The article notes that on March 24 and then on April 11, Khidirbegishvili spoke about “a...
On December 17, 2020, Facebook account Lasha Modebadze, which apparently is a fake profile, published a post about Kutaisi International University funded by Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Cartu Foundation. According to the post, Bidzina Ivanishvili, leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party, is building not the university, but a high-technology research center in Kutaisi with the key goal...
On November 29, Facebook profile ბიბლიის მორწმუნე ქრისტიანები (Bible Believing Christians) published a lengthy post, noting that the pandemic was planned intentionally and that this claim is supported by relevant evidence. To back up this opinion, the author provides various arguments, among others a documentary “Plandemic.” The post reads that the Plandemic has exposed a COVID-19 “criminal...
On December 2, Facebook user Lasha Modebadze, apparently a fake account, published a post about the Zika virus, claiming that the Rockefeller-owned ATCC, the global biological materials resource and standards organization, sells human organs and viruses, including Zika virus through the Internet. This latter, as the author claims, has been created artificially and its patent is owned...
On December 1, Facebook user Lasha Modebadze published a post about the Tbilisi-based Lugar Lab. The Facebook profile hiding its identity claims that as part of the Hepatitis C Elimination Program, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instructed Georgia to test medications and collect population’s genetic material in a biobank. According to the post,...
On November 17, 2020, Georgia and World, a pro-Kremlin online media outlet, published an article headlined “Catholic archbishop speaks out: pandemic has been fabricated for the Great Reset.” The article involves a letter sent by U.S.-based Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano to President Donald Trump on October 25, where the Archbishop calls the coronavirus pandemic a plan of global...
On November 11, 2020, Facebook user Nona Sharabidze published a post, according to which the Rockefeller and the Rothschild families are the Masons and globalists. Sharabidze claims that just they destructed Georgia’s economy following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and shifted the entire blame for its consequences on Russia. The post is accompanied by the photo...
On November 12, a Facebook user Gio Gio published a photo in a public Facebook group „ჩემი გორი ✔“ (My Gori ✔) displaying information about Levofloxacin with Latin letters. The post claims that it cures COVID-19. The photo reads: “Folks, see Levofloxacin – the first drug that cures corona!!!! (ten tables needed in total)”. The author of...
On October 11, AS-Source News / MILITARY posted on its Twitter account that Israel has again delivered weapons to Azerbaijan by air. According to the Twitter post, the flight was conducted through Georgia and Turkey. The author accuses both Georgia and Turkey of being complicit in arming Azerbaijan. The post is accompanied by a photo...
On October 1, 2020, the troll and administrator of the group “Corona Mafia” Lasha Modebadze (plausibly a fake profile) published a long post in the said group claiming that the spread of coronavirus took place based on the much older script and Lugar Lab has contributed to it. To prove a point fake account mentions...
On September 8, member of Alliance of Patriots Giorgi Lomia discussed the poisoning of Russian opposition-member Alexei Navalny on the program “For Everybody to Hear” of Night Studio, “Obiektivi” TV. According to him, it was confirmed that Alexei Navalny wasn’t poisoned by “Novichok”. On September 8, “Sakinformi” published the statement from one of the creators...
Alliance of Patriots initiated series of videos called “Protect Adjara, Protect Your Part of Georgia” in the framework of its electoral campaign. In the videos, the leaders of the party state that Turkey has occupied 33% of Georgia’s territory and claims other regions of Georgia as well, including Adjara, Samtskhe-Javakheti, and Guria. While discussing the...
On September 3, the Ministry of Health made a statement that a cyberattack had been carried out on the computer system of the Ministry by foreign intelligence agents, resulting in medical documentation about Lugar Research Center being stolen and published on foreign webpages. Later, the Deputy Head of the National Center for Disease Control and...
Georgia and the World published a newspaper version of Valeri Kvaratskhelia’s TV program “ოქროს კვეთა” (Golden Cut) on August 4 in which the author, citing Russian politicians, media outlets, and scientists, claims that the United States is collecting biological materials of specific ethnic groups and there is a reasonable doubt that the processed biological material...
On July 16, a Russian-language Sputnik-Ossetia spread a statement by KGB of Russian-occupied Tskhinvali Region about arresting Georgian citizen Khvicha Mgebrishvili on July 3 on charges of “illegal crossing of the border.” According to the statement, the Georgian man infiltrated into the region to collect the bats included on the Red List and sell them...
In a July 13-19 issue of Asaval-Dasavali, Vladimer Khomeriki, the Director of the Foundation for the Unity of Russian and Georgian People, stated that the Treaty of Kars expires in 2021 and that only Russia can protect Georgia from the Turkish aggression. He also added that the occupation of Georgian territories by Russia is Georgia’s...
On July 6, an official Facebook profile of the South Ossetian TV and Radio Company “ИР” run by the occupied region’s government shared a video headlined “Experiments on people in Georgia” in the group with the same name. The video has a caption “What is happening at Lugar Lab.” The media outlet posted an identical...
In its policy documents, the Georgian government recognizes Russian propaganda as a threat facing the country. To fight disinformation, strategic communications services are now operating at the Georgian government and various ministries; in addition, a media literacy function has been added to Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC) to increase the resilience of media users and...
On July 4, the Russian Foreign Ministry released one more statement regarding the Tbilisi-based Richard Lugar Center for Public Health Research, popularly known as Lugar Lab, according to which the U.S. Department of Defense is carrying out military-biological activities near the Russian borders, particularly at the Lugar Center in Georgia. The statement was spread by...
The security service (KGB) of occupied Tskhinvali region frequently releases statements about the Tbilisi-based Lugar Lab. On June 9, Sputnik-Ossetia spread one of its latest statements, according to which Tskhinvali KGB disclosed information about the activities of Lugar Lab. The statement involves seven new conspiratorial messages. Tskhinvali KGB notes that the data were collected based...
Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, Kremlin and Hezbollah-affiliated Bulgarian journalist, who is one of the sources of Kremlin’s disinformation against the Lugar Lab, has prepared another conspiratorial material about the Tbilisi-based lab. On May 2, Gaytandzhieva published an article on her blog dilyana.bg with a headline “Project G-2101: Pentagon biolab discovered MERS and SARS-like coronaviruses in bats.” The...
On May 20, Sputnik-Ossetia and a South Ossetian “governmental TV channel” PEC published a statement by the South Ossetian KGB that accused Lugar Laboratory of collecting biological materials near the border. The Security Committee of South Ossetia also mentions that the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) was providing help to the Lugar Lab in this...
A Facebook page „სტალინი“ (“Stalin”) has been re-introducing old conspiracy theories about the Lugar Laboratory in the context of the coronavirus threat. By re-sharing archive materials, the page creates a false perception that the dissemination of coronavirus is connected to Lugar Lab and the United States. On May 1, a Facebook page “Stalin” shared a...
On April 28, Sputnik-Ossetia published an article headlined “KGB announced about a threat of deliberately infecting South Ossetian citizens with COVID-19 from Georgia” (КГБ заявил об угрозе преднамеренного заражения граждан Южной Осетии COVID-19 из Грузии). According to the article, the so called South Ossetian security service warns local population not to accept the Georgian side’s...
On April 30, News Front Georgia published an article headlined “Let’s hope, a controversial American medication is not imported and tested in Georgia!” The article is about an antiviral medication Remdesivir produced by the U.S. company Gilead Sciences, which is being tested for COVID-19 treatment. The author of the article accuses the United States of...
Several fake articles have been disseminated recently on social media about the fight against coronavirus. This time, the ground for discussion was homeopathic substances and their effectiveness in fighting COVID-19. For instance, on March 17, Progressnews disseminated an article where a Georgian homeopath, Kakha Sabakhtarashvili, discusses a homeopathic drug with crocodile blood that cures coronavirus....
Bulk of disinformation and misleading information on COVID-19 circulating in Georgia is political in nature and spread by openly pro-Russian as well as Georgian-language news outlets. Key messages conveyed through it are: Virus is man-made, manufactured by the USA; some of the outlets assert that the Lugar Lab is the source of virus; The role...
Georgian and foreign media outlets are actively spreading a conspiracy theory claiming 5G technology can spread the coronavirus. The myth supposedly gained traction when a Belgian doctor linked the dangers of 5G technology to COVID-19 during an interview in January 2020. Different opinions have already emerged in social networks about 5G allegedly posing a threat...
Which Russian Sources Are Cited by Obieqtivi TV to Accuse U.S. of Creating Coronavirus Artificially?
On March 24, 2020, Valeri Kvaratskhelia, host of Obieqtivi TV program “Gamis Studia – Kvelas Gasagonad” (Night Studio – To Everybody’s Attention), focused his attention on the coronavirus outbreak. He noted that the novel coronavirus has been created artificially and that its molecule involves a trace of “engineering interference.” He cited the extracts from Vladimir...
Amid the spread of the novel coronavirus in Georgia, the pro-Kremlin actors in the country are promoting the opinion that the West has abandoned Georgia during the pandemic and only China assists the country in tackling the virus. In fact, the pro-Kremlin actors are referring to 1,000 diagnostic tests handed over by the Chinese government....
During a news briefing on 26 March, Deputy Director of the National Disease Control Centre Paata Imnadze was asked by a journalist whether he thanked the third President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili for the establishment of the Lugar Lab, as it was reported by regional media. Imnadze responded that he never made such statement. Paata...
Narmin Ayvazova Narmin Ayvazova is doing her third academic year at the Faculty of Economy and Business at Tbilisi State University, majoring in Tourism and Business Administration. She currently serves as a PR representative of Salam platform, is an attendee at Caucasian House’s Public University, and is a participant of Emerging Leaders School (ELS) by...
As the importance of Richard Lugar Center for Public Health Research, popularly known as Lugar Lab, increases in the fight against COVID-19, the pro-Kremlin media, which have exploited various conspiracy theories about the Lugar Laboratory for years now, takes efforts to diminish the importance of this diagnostic center by declaring recent positive assessments of the...
Nestan Ananidze Nestan Ananidze is a third-year law student at Tbilisi State University. Nestan is currently a member of the “Solidarity Platform” of the “Human Rights and Monitoring Center (EMC)”. In addition, she is a member of the non-governmental organization “Civic Hall” and her civic activism is aimed at the development of the regions of...
On 18 March 2020, News Front Georgia published an article titled “Coronavirus has not originated in China! Hello, Lugar Laboratory!” Referring to Global Research Canada and the government of China, the article alleged that the coronavirus was intentionally imported into China by US servicemen. By mentioning Tbilisi-based Lugar Laboratory in connection with the spread of...
After the first recorded cases of coronavirus in Georgia openly pro-Kremlin Facebook pages are conducting smear campaign against Richard Lugar Center for Public Health Research in Tbilisi. For instance, on February 26-27, Kremlin-associated editions News Front Georgia and Georgia and the World, as well as a Facebook page “Stalin” shared the articles prepared by Georgia...
Obieqtivi TV continues illegal broadcasting in the Russian language and this time with a co-host from Sputnik-georgia.ru. Bypassing the decision adopted by Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC) on January 9, which issued a warning and ordered Media Union Obieqtivi to immediately remove Russian-language program from the air, the TV channel still aired the program “Неделя”...
Introduction At first glance Georgia seems to have a striving, pluralistic media landscape. However a closer look reveals a lot of underlying problems when it comes to true press freedom. A lot of media outlets depend on outside financial aid1. As there is no influential, independent media company public distrust in the media is high.2....
On January 5, Georgian tabloid, Alia and online edition euronews.ge released identical articles, quoting only one source as saying that the outbreak of H1N1 flu, also known as swine flu, is raging only in Georgia and that the virus has been spread by the U.S.-funded Lugar Laboratory in Tbilisi outskirts. Alia [headline]: “Swine flu outbreak...
Jeffrey Silverman, author of USA Really sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and one of the main sources referred to by Russian state-sponsored media outlets against the Lugar Laboratory, is a volunteer teacher in Teach and Learn with Georgia program implemented by Teacher Professional Development Center. Silverman teaches English at LEPL Public College...
On October 14, 2019, Facebook page MSB Hulusi Akar that is a fake account created on July 11, 2018 and allegedly belonging to the Turkish Defense Minister released a fake map, where a part of the territories of Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Syria, Iraq, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, including Batumi, fall within the Turkish borders. The...
Reports emerged on October 5 that Ilia Jishkariani, member of the Tbilisi City Council (Sakrebulo) was accused by Tamta Todadze, his assistant, of attempted rape and sexual violence. On October 8, the Prosecutor’s Office granted Tamta Todadze the status of a victim and brought charges against Ilia Jishkariani. Tamta Todadze’s accusations against the Sakrebulo member...
On August 6, Sputnik Ossetia published an interview with the Head of Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service, Alan Margiev, titled “South Ossetia Connects the New Diseases to the Lugar Laboratory in Georgia”. In his interview, Margiev claims that the activities of Richard Lugar Public Healthcare Research Center are to blame for the cases of African Swine...
Giga Abashidze Giga Abashidze has a BA degree in International Relations from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University with additional specialization in Far Eastern Regional Studies. PUBLISHED MATERIAL: Inashvili against the Term “Occupation” Disinformation as if Russian Fighter Jets Intervened in Georgia Nika Azikuri Nika Azikuri has a BA degree in Liberal Arts and Humanities from...
Georgian tabloid Asaval-Dasavali released in its April 15-21 issue an interview with Georgian-based American journalist, Jeffrey Silverman, where he talks about the risks of losing Adjara. Silverman repeats the conspiracy theories around the Treaty of Kars and notes that under the Treaty, Turkey will take control of Adjara. Anti-Turkish messages were also voiced by Davit...
In its January 14-20 issue, Georgian tabloid Asaval-Dasavali released an interview with Jeffrey Silverman, Georgian Bureau Chief for Veterans Today, where he again spreads conspiracy theories about swine flu, laboratories and vaccines. Silverman claims that H1N1 flu virus was created in the laboratory and that it was first tested in China in 2018 and now...
Disinformation and conspiracy theories related to swine flu have gone viral in social media and tabloids recently. According to the three most widespread conspiracy theories about swine flu: Swine flu was spread from the Lugar Laboratory; Swine flu is an artificially created epidemic and it is linked with business interests; Bananas imported to Georgia are...
On December 5, 2018, Russian language page of Sputnik Georgia published a comment of Gennady Onishchenko – the member of the Duma, about the Lugar Laboratory in Georgia. According to Onishchenko there are “Cold rooms” in the Lugar laboratory, which are not used in any other laboratory. Sputnik’s material is provided with two links. The...
On October 18, 2018, during the final session of the club Valdai, held annually in Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin talked about the conspiracies about Lugar Laboratory disseminated by the former Minister of State Security of Georgia Igor Giorgadze. According to Putin, the experiments on humans carried out by the Lugar Laboratory are alarming because...
Were the documents from the Ministry of Health leaked to pro-Kremlin media? On September 25, 2018, Vladimir Yermakov, Director of the Foreign Ministry Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control, said that Russia would never allow conducting biological experiments by the Americans near its borders. The Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement came two weeks after Igor Giorgadze,...
Grigori Aivazishvili Grigori Aivazishvili is a student of International Relations faculty of the School of Social Sciences at The University of Georgia. Since 2017, he has been involved in the parliamentary internship program of the Student Parliament. Grigori also cooperates with various student clubs. He is interested in International Law and his hobbies are photography...
On July 26, an online portal Geworld.ge released an article “Why does the U.S. turn Ukraine into a bio-bomb” prepared by Strategic Culture Foundation (Фонд стратегической культуры) and posted on its website on July 5. According to the article, the Ukraine-based biological laboratories represent a laboratory network controlled by the Pentagon, which aim to study...
Since 2012, the pro-Kremlin and ethno-nationalistic publications, as well as various non-profit organizations and numerous respondents regularly spread misinformation about Richard Lugar Microbiological Laboratory in various alterations. Last reporting about dangerous laboratory experiments performed on living human subjects was published on 26 February 2017 in “Saqartvelo da Msoflio”. In the same issue of the newspaper...
Brīvības un Solidaritātes Fonds released the publication “Resisting Foreign State Propaganda in the New Information Environment: the case of the EU, Russia, and the Eastern Partnership countries”. The book collects expert opinions regarding policy responses against Russian propaganda efforts both at EU level and within EaP countries (Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova), provides in-depth analysis of current...
In its edition on August 1-7 Georgian newspaper Alia published an article prepared by Global Research Center titled “The Lugar Laboratory in Georgia: Risks and Opportunities”, which contains disinformation about the activities of the Richard Lugar Center for Public Health Research in Tbilisi. The newspaper’s editorial board confirmed that it was a paid article. Global...
On July 21 Sakinformi, an online portal, released an interview of its editor-in-chief, Arno Khidirbegishvili with Russian news agency REX, according to which U.S. soldiers brought AIDS virus to the United States from Vietnam and it was created in the chemical laboratories of the Pentagon to conduct experiments on the Vietnamese. Conspiracy theories about artificial origin of...
Security is a major component in the process of building a modern democratic state and neither welfare nor economic development can be achieved without it. Security in 21st century is no more limited by geographical and political boundaries of a country – it mostly depends on partnership and cooperation between various countries against common threats. Threat...
Richard Lugar Center for Public Health Research was established as part of the biosecurity partnership between Georgia and the United States. In particular, the Biological Threat Reduction Program was developed at the end of 1990s. In order to implement this program, the agreement on Cooperation in the field of Nonproliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction...
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