Russia's unfounded claims of secret US bioweapons linger on and on

The US secretly manufactured biological weapons in Ukraine. It trained birds to carry viruses into Russia. It created Covid-19. It operated laboratories in Nigeria that engineered this year's outbreak of monkeypox.

Of the many falsehoods that the Kremlin has spread since the war in Ukraine began more than six months ago, some of the most outlandish and yet enduring have been those accusing the US of operating clandestine biological research programs to wreak havoc around the globe. The US and others have dismissed the accusations as preposterous, and Russia has offered no proof. Yet the claims continue to circulate. Backed at times by China's diplomats and state media, they have ebbed and flowed in international news reports, fuelling conspiracy theories that linger online.