International experts from 17 countries are exploring how the US-built, Tbilisi-based Lugar Center works amid Russian allegations and reports about supposed illegal experiments conducted at the center.
The experts started working yesterday and will release a report after they finish investigating the situation at the center.
Commander of the Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence Troops of Russia Igor Kirilov said at a special briefing last month that illegal experiments have been performed on humans in the lab and led to the death of more than 73 people in 2015 and 2016.
However, Head of the National Centre of Disease Control (NCDC) of Georgia Amiran Gamkrelidze said that the allegations were “unimaginable falsehoods and slander.”
At the UN Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) experts meeting in August, Georgia expressed its readiness to host international experts at Lugar Center.
23 delegates are conducting the two-day Peer Review Exercise under the BWC of the UN, which was been signed into place by Georgia on May 22, 1996. Experts from the EU and UN are among the delegates.
As a signatory of the convention, Georgia is obliged to annually prepare the Confidence-Building Measures report which includes all the information regarding the biological capabilities and activities of the country.