Russian Defence Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu on April 24 announced the creation of a 30,000 strong army group to combat COVID-19 caused by novel Coronavirus. In a televised address at the meeting of top armed forces commanders, General Shoigu disclosed that the army group will be equipped with 4,000 military hardware and other special equipment and would be under direct control of Operational HQ of the Defence Ministry, and besides combating Coronavirus disease among the armed forces will assist Russian Federation’s needy regions. He also announced that 32 new military field hospitals specialising on treating COVID-19 patients will be ready by May 15.
On the same day as Defence Minister was announcing the creation of army group, Russia’s Federal COVID-19 Response body said there were 68,622 infected in the country, 5,568 patients had recovered and 615 dead. The scale of pandemic outbreak in the former Communist country is very modest as compared to its Western peers like the US, Italy, Spain and France, but why Moscow from the very beginning has been taking drastic steps in response to the Wuhan-400 novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)? Russia and China are widely considered close allies and Moscow is believed to have a strong intelligence presence in China, and was probably alerted about the peculiarities of Wuhan virus.
Even before the French Nobel laureate Luc Montagnier sparked a controversy by claiming that the SARS-CoV-2 virus came from the Wuhan lab, Russia closed its several thousand kilometer long land border with China From mid-night on January 31 and cancelled all e-visas for the Chinese citizens. Thousands of Chinese tourists and other citizens in Russia at that juncture were quarantined in their hotel rooms, evoking strong protests from the Chinese embassy in Moscow. Simultaneously, Russian Health Ministry issued an advisory to use old Soviet anti-malarial drug Chloroquine and antiviral drug Ribavirin in combination with anti HIV drugs as prophylactics and treatment. These steps indicate that Moscow is inclined to believe in man-made character of the Chinese virus.
Professor Montagnier who co-discovered HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) claimed the presence of elements of HIV in the genome of the Coronavirus and even elements of the “germ of malaria” are highly suspect, this explains the usage of combination of anti-HIV and anti-malarial drugs in treatment of COVID-19 patients.
Ever since the worst years of the Cold War rivalry, Moscow had been fearing and gearing for a biological attack from the West and had worked out standard operational protocols to protect armed forces and civilians, a retired Soviet Army officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity and added that Russian government’s steps are strictly in line with old SOPs.
Probably, top leadership of former Cold War rivals – US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are aware of the man-made nature of novel Coronavirus.
Shortly after crucial telephonic call to President Vladimir Putin on March 30 by President Donald Trump, Russia rushed some undisclosed “humanitarian” supplies to the US along with a batch of ventilators paid for by the State Department.
The US and Russian presidents also probably know that it was not a deliberate attempt to develop biological weapon for germ warfare, but as the French scientist contemplated: was the result of an attempt to manufacture a vaccine against the AIDS virus. This implies that there is no antidote for the novel Coronavirus for the time being as it was product of a botched experiment.
However, it did not stop Mr Trump from declaring last week the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak was not just some flu but “attack” on America.
The author is a Moscow-based independent analyst. Views are personal.
