Lugar lab in Georgia has no dual purpose - health minister
TBILISI. Oct 16 (Interfax) - The Richard Lugar Center for Public Health Research, aka the Lugar lab, near Tbilisi has no dual purpose, Georgian Health Minister David Sergiyenko told the press on Tuesday.
"The Lugar laboratory is a major medical center tasked with the prevention, detection, and necessary response to possible biological threats," Sergiyenko said.
He dismissed the allegations by some Russian specialists that the laboratory has a dual purpose as absolutely baseless.
"We have invited Russian specialists to visit the Lugar lab multiple times. We sent another invitation a short time ago. We are offering Russian specialists to see the laboratory with their own eyes and make sure that it does not have a dual purpose," Sergiyenko said.
Igor Giorgadze, who served as the Georgian security minister in 1993-1995, said at a press conference in Moscow on September 11 that the laboratory operating in the vicinity of Tbilisi under the U.S.' aegis might be producing extremely dangerous bacteria and viruses.
The Russian Defense Ministry said later there were signs of the United States' breach of the Biological Weapons Convention.