Igor Kirillov’s Death Rekindles Baseless Conspiracies He Spread
The death of Russian Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov, the head of the country’s nuclear and chemical defense forces, has led to retellings of anti-Ukrainian and anti-United States falsehoods that he helped spread from his seat of power.
Kirillov, 54, was leaving a residential block on Tuesday when an explosive device hidden in a scooter detonated, killing him and his assistant, officials cited by the Associated Press said.
An official at Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, said the agency was behind the attack. The individual, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described Kirillov as a “war criminal and an entirely legitimate target,” according to AP.
Over the past six years, Kirillov helped to spread several baseless conspiracies, including that the U.S. developed COVID-19, that Ukraine and the U.S. were developing bioweapons facilities in Ukraine, and that President Joe Biden‘s son, Hunter Biden, was linked to bioweapons development.
These have been debunked, but Kirillov’s death sparked the re-emergence of the same unsubstantiated talking points.
A post on X, formerly Twitter, by the account Shadow of Ezra, posted on December 17, 2024, said: “Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, a key figure in uncovering controversial bioweapons programs, has been k*lled in a Moscow explosion triggered by an explosive device.
“Kirillov gained international attention for investigating alleged U.S.-backed biolabs in Ukraine, claiming they were researching methods to spark a pandemic and frame Russia.
“He publicly denounced COVID-19 as a man-made virus created by the U.S. government and exposed the involvement of vaccine giants Pfizer and Moderna in U.S. military and biological operations in Ukraine.
“He went further and revealed that Hunter Biden’s Rosemont Seneca Investment Fund and the Soros Foundation were financing Ukrainian biolaboratories.”
The claims in this post are false.
As Newsweek previously reported, the Russian Defense Ministry, in 2022, said it had obtained evidence that Ukraine and the U.S. had collaborated to develop biological weapons. Kirillov delivered official briefings that shared this falsehood.
While the U.S. and Ukraine have had a partnership since 2005 to prevent the threat of outbreaks of infectious diseases, there is no evidence that this was part of any plan to develop biological weapons or create a disease outbreak.
A statement released by the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine in April 2020 said: “The U.S. Embassy would like to set the record straight regarding disinformation spreading in some circles in Ukraine that mirrors Russian disinformation regarding the strong U.S.-Ukrainian partnership to reduce biological threats.
“Here in Ukraine, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Biological Threat Reduction Program [BTRP] works with the Ukrainian Government to consolidate and secure pathogens and toxins of security concern in Ukrainian government facilities, while allowing for peaceful research and vaccine development.
“We also work with our Ukrainian partners to ensure Ukraine can detect and report outbreaks caused by dangerous pathogens before they pose security or stability threats.
“Our joint efforts help to ensure that dangerous pathogens do not fall into the wrong hands.”
The partnership between the U.S. Defense Department and the Ukraine Ministry of Health is part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program (CTR), which began in 1991 with the aim of reducing the threat of weapons of mass destruction following the fall of the Soviet Union.
According to a fact sheet released by the Defense Department, the U.S. works with Ukraine and other countries to research the threats of dangerous diseases affecting animals and humans.
Through BTRP, the U.S. has invested $200 million in Ukraine since 2005 to support 46 laboratories and their research into disease threats. Such work in Ukraine helped the country in its response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
There is no evidence of U.S.-funded labs in Ukraine developing germ warfare capabilities. Similar conspiracy theories have been pushed by Russia for decades, including claims that HIV/AIDS was created in a U.S. military lab.
Falsehoods about the U.S. having biological laboratories in Ukraine began to emerge in the weeks before the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
As reported by PolitiFact, Russia and China helped spread the false claim that the U.S. had biolabs along each of their borders, suggesting the U.S. was responsible for COVID-19.
As the false biolab narrative took hold, attempts were also made to try and connect these programs with Hunter Biden and his business dealings in Ukraine.
A branch of Biden’s former investment firm, Rosemont Seneca, invested and raised money for Metabiota, a technology company that researches the “impact of outbreaks and epidemics on human and animal health. It received subcontract work through government funding “Ukraine research programs,” as Newsweek’s Fact Check team previously reported.
As reported by The Washington Post, Kirillov was among the voices spreading falsehoods about Biden’s links, telling Russian state-owned media outlet RIA Novosti in 2022, “Hunter Biden’s Rosemont Seneca investment fund financed the Pentagon‘s military biological program in Ukraine.”
However, according to a company official who spoke to the Post, Metabiota’s work was effectively as a hiring agency, identifying staff that could work in a biological research lab.
The investment between Rosemont Seneca and Metabiota was tenuous, separated by another investment arm that Biden was said not to have been a decision-making member. Investments in Metabiota were around when Biden was eased out of the company.
In 2022, Kirillov tried to connect a United States Agency for International Development program called Predict to Metabiota and made baseless claims trying to tie Predict research on preventing pandemics to COVID-19. Predict shutdown in 2019, ahead of the global COVID pandemic.
He also spread baseless claims tying a pandemic simulation run by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security to the actual outbreak of COVID, a conspiracy that United Kingdom-based fact checkers Full Fact has debunked.
As for Kirillov’s claims about the involvement of Pfizer and Moderna in biomilitary weapons labs, these appear to have been a continuation of other falsehoods about bioweapons labs that were not supported by any evidence or data.
Kirillov made these claims to Russian state media in 2022 but did not present any evidence to support his allegations.
Newsweek reached out to a media representative for Pfizer and Moderna for comment.
Kirillov headed Russia’s nuclear, biological, and chemical defense forces, known as RKhBZ. He was charged in Ukraine in absentia on Monday for the use of banned chemical weapons in the war started by Moscow and had also been sanctioned by the U.K. and other countries for his role in Russia’s use of the weapons.
The Security Service of Ukraine has accused Russia of using chemical weapons more than 4,800 times throughout the war.
Kirillov had headed Russia’s nuclear protection forces since 2017 and also reportedly helped to introduce the TOS-2 “Tosochka” multiple rocket launcher, capable of using thermobaric warheads.
Related Articles
