Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has said American biological research could lead to catastrophic epidemics.
The deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council has said that the US could unleash a “zombie apocalypse”.
Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president, claimed American biological research will trigger deadly outbreaks similar to those portrayed in the hit TV series “The Last of Us.”
In an essay about threats posed by new technology, Medvedev suggested that advances in biotechnology and US military research could lead to catastrophic epidemics. He neglected to mention Putin’s own use of nerve agents and poisons against his enemies, including Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
It comes after scientists at Porton Down, the UK’s top secret defence lab in Wiltshire, “conclusively” recently identified epibatidine – a powerful neurotoxin found naturally in South American dart frogs – in smuggled biological samples linked to Navalny, who was found dead in his cell at a remote Arctic penal colony on February 16, 2024, aged 47.
Medvedev wrote in his essay: “After some time, the zombie apocalypse demonstrated by Americans themselves in the game and TV series The Last of Us may not be so fantasy.”
He claimed the US has created a vast network of around 400 biological laboratories around the world, accusing Washington of conducting research capable of spreading dangerous diseases – allegations Western governments have repeatedly dismissed as disinformation.
“The United States, as is well known, has formed a global military biological network, using other countries as testing grounds,” he wrote.
“As a result, millions of people are unwittingly becoming hostages to deadly threats. The infrastructure, created with the direct participation of the Pentagon and its affiliated medical companies, comprises approximately 400 dual-use BSL-class laboratories operating in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the [former Soviet Union].
“The research results allow the US to manage the spread of epidemics and study the genetic factors that influence human resistance to various diseases.”
He argued that advances in genetic engineering and synthetic biology could allow new pathogens to be created artificially and spread in ways that would be difficult to trace.
The extraordinary claims came in a lengthy article titled “New Technologies: A Stairway to Heaven or a Road to Hell”, in which Medvedev painted a dystopian vision of the future overrun by artificial intelligence, biotechnology and autonomous weapons.
He warned that AI could destroy millions of jobs, unleash cyberattacks on critical infrastructure and even take control of vital systems such as nuclear power plants.
Medvedev also claimed that swarms of drones could transform warfare into a video-game-like “remote killing” system, lowering the psychological barrier to violence.
“The existence of all humanity, whose situation is becoming increasingly precarious and bleak, is at stake,” he said.
The hardline Kremlin figure accused Western tech giants and governments of using digital platforms to “softly enslave” populations through algorithms and data control.
Medvedev, who served as Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012, has become one of the Kremlin’s most virulent anti-Western voices since the invasion of Ukraine.
He frequently posts inflammatory statements online predicting the collapse of the West, nuclear war or the destruction of Ukraine.
In his latest broadside, he also claimed the war in Ukraine – which he described as a crisis “fuelled by Russophobic countries seeking Russia’s defeat” – would eventually end as global attention shifted to technological threats facing humanity.
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