Thread by @SamRamani2

Russia's fixation on US biological weapons facilities in Ukraine has sparked fears that Russia could use WMDs.

The Kremlin is also using the biological weapons threat to rally Russians around the war in Ukraine. Some more details /1

The Kremlin is framing US biolabs as an existential danger to Russia's security.

This reinforces the existential struggle narratives advanced by Putin's chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky and Sergei Lavrov, who described the war in Ukraine as a "hybrid, total war" /2

Russia links its efforts to destroy US bioweapons to Pan-Slavism

Leonid Slutsky warned that US bioweapons in Ukraine targeted the "Slavic genotype."

The coincidence between this rhetoric and the anniversary of NATO's bombing of Serbia, which fuelled Pan-Slavism is striking /3

Russian State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has accused George Soros of funding biolabs, and reminded Russians of Soros's funding of "colour revolutions"

This reinforces the hybrid Western attack narrative on Russia /4

Russia's UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzia's warning that US bioweapons infect all of Europe, and that Europe is standing idle reinforces Russia's narrative of European weakness and subjugation by the US.

This contrasts with Russia's "resilience" in the face of war and sanctions /5

Russian media also claims that the US is testing experimental drugs on Ukrainian soldiers, resulting in 20 deaths in Kharkiv alone

This plays into Russia's repeated narrative that it needs to "save Ukraine from the West" and aims to evoke an emotional response /6

While Russia's conspiracy theories about US bioweapons might appear irrational, they are carefully crafted to appeal to a domestic audience

The power of these narratives should not be underestimated /7