Russia bans specimen exports

[Aptrgangr]

Russia bans specimen exports

By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
Last Updated: 2:28am BST 02/06/2007

Russia has banned the export of medical specimens after the country's spy agency allegedly uncovered a Western plot to manufacture a biological weapon that would make Russians sterile.

In a decree that appeared to reflect the Russian state's growing suspicion of all things Western, the Federal Customs Service forbade the shipment of all human blood, hair, DNA and bone marrow out of the country.

While officials gave no formal explanation for the ban, Russia's most respected broadsheet suggested that the customs service had been ordered to act after the Federal Security Service, the KGB's successor, handed an alarming report to President Vladimir Putin earlier this month.

Quoting unidentified sources, Kommersant said that foreign health institutions were using human specimens to create a "genetically engineered biological weapon" capable of rendering the Russian population sterile or even of killing it off altogether.

Among those purportedly involved in the conspiracy are the Harvard School of Public Health and the U.S. Department of Justice. The FSB declined to comment on the allegations.

The newspaper said the ban had been authorized by deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov, a hardliner many believe could succeed Mr Putin next year.

Doctors have expressed concern that the ban could lead to thousands of unnecessary deaths. Hundreds of biological samples are shipped out of Russia every day for clinical trials that cannot be carried out locally.

It is unclear whether individual samples, which are often sent for analysis abroad allowing life-saving diagnosis for many curable diseases, are affected.
Officials at the Federal Customs Service said they had been "expressly forbidden" from releasing details about the ban. A health ministry spokesman said it was possible individual samples were exempt.

"We have nothing to do with the ban," the spokesman said. "As far as I know, it primarily targets clinical trials conducted by pharmaceutical companies." Like many foreign companies operating in Russia, pharmaceutical multinationals have come under growing official suspicion of late, with some accused of improperly carrying out tests on children.

Russia bans specimen exports | International News | News | Telegraph


I highly doubt there is a Western plot to make Russians sterile, Russians make themselves sterile by drinking poisonous alcohol and other crap, but claims Western medicament drugs etc. are poisonous and even can cause sterility are true.

[svin]

The other thing is interesting. I watched interview of one guy (maybe he was even responsible for this ban), who started usual babbling "Russians do not exist, we're so mixed that it is impossible to create a plot against us etc etc".

Of course there is no such plot, it's ridiculous, but I was angered by the arguments against such plot.

[Errigal]

This article is third rate propaganda against Putin's government. They want the Brits reading the paper to have a little laugh at how paranoid and primitive the Russians are. Here is the exchange between a Russian journalist and Putin that the neocon Telegraph built this fairytale on:

KOMMERSANT: Vladimir Vladimirovich, this is perhaps more of a local, specific matter, but I think the issue is nevertheless important. Our newspaper has been writing over the last few days about the fact that, two days ago, the Federal Customs Service banned biological materials from being taken out of the country. It is quite simply not letting them out of the country.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: What are these biological materials?

KOMMERSANT: Samples of biological materials, things such as blood samples, pieces of human tissue, material that is needed for carrying out quality analysis in the West where there are large-scale data bases. This is needed in order to establish the most accurate diagnosis for people in Russia who have cancer, for example, and in order, ultimately, to be able to operate on them and help them. But the customs service is not letting these samples out of the country. Various explanations are being circulated as to why this is so, but facts remains facts. The Federal Customs Service even issued a statement today saying that some rules would soon be drawn up on this matter. But the samples are already not being allowed out of the country. What is your view on this matter?

VLADIMIR PUTIN: It is hard for me to say exactly because I do not know very much about this. I think that rules should be drawn up, and the Health Ministry should take part in this work. You say that these samples are sent abroad in order to help people, but my question in this case is: who has been helped through this and what help have they actually received? Are there any statistics? I do not have any such statistics and, overall, I have my doubts as to whether anyone has been specifically helped through these biological samples being sent abroad.

KOMMERSANT: Getting a correct diagnosis is already a form of help, and it is these international data bases abroad that are used to establish the correct diagnosis.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: And where is this diagnosis? Show me statistics proving that someone has received the correct diagnosis as a result of this work?

KOMMERSANT: We can show you these statistics.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Send them to me then. But one should be working with the Health Ministry on all of this. All countries have rules on issues such as organs, tissues and so on being taken out of the country. This is a sensitive issue and any civilised country should have some rules in this area, Russia too. I do not know all the details of this issue, but rules will be put in place and we will all work within their framework.

KOMMERSANT: But perhaps the border could be opened again while the rules are being drafted? Perhaps the previous rules could continue to be applied over this period?

VLADIMIR PUTIN: There are no previous rules. If there had been a set of rules, it would be possible to say whether or not violations have taken place, but there simply was no previous set of rules. Now we need to take steps to bring order to this situation and the Health Ministry’s specialists need to get involved in this work and set out their position.

Interview with Newspaper Journalists from G8 Member Countries
June 4, 2007