Sezoni TV Spreads Repeated Disinformation About The Lugar Laboratory

On February 21, during the Sezoni TV program “Sum-Up of the Day with Nikoloz Mzhavanadze,” host Nikoloz Mzhavanadze spoke about the Lugar Laboratory. The broadcast also featured a clip from a program by Igor Giorgadze, a former Minister of State Security of Georgia, in which he also discussed the laboratory. Mzhavanadze and Giorgadze made several claims regarding the laboratory:

Mzhavanadze linked the spread of the brown marmorated stink bug in Georgia to the Lugar Research Center.
He also associated the laboratory with pig mortality in the country.
Igor Giorgadze claimed that dozens of people had died due to experiments allegedly conducted on the Georgian population at the laboratory.

The program included an excerpt from a longer video by Igor Giorgadze, which he published on his YouTube channel on February 18.

The claims made in the broadcast about the Lugar Laboratory are disinformation, repeating Kremlin-backed and conspiratorial narratives that have circulated for years regarding the laboratory’s activities. The facts are as follows: 1) The brown marmorated stink bug spread to Georgia from Sochi, Russia, in 2015; 2) Research has shown that African swine fever entered Georgia from Southeast African countries; 3) No human experiments are conducted at the laboratory. The Lugar Laboratory was involved in the diagnostic phase of Georgia’s Hepatitis C elimination program; the program was highly successful, achieving a 98% cure rate.

Where Did the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug in Georgia Come From?

The brown marmorated stink bug first appeared in Georgia in 2015. It spread in 2016, damaging hazelnut crops. This insect has been detected in multiple countries besides Georgia. Its native region is Southeast Asia, including China, Korea, and Japan. In the 1990s, it was identified in Pennsylvania, USA, and has since spread to 34 states. In Europe, it was first found in Switzerland in 2008. In Georgia, the brown marmorated stink bug spread from Russia. The infestation began in the occupied region of Abkhazia, where the insect arrived from Sochi, Russia. The bug was introduced to Sochi through equipment imported from Italy for the Olympics. Therefore, the origin and spread of the stink bug in Georgia are well-documented, and it has no connection to the Lugar Laboratory.

The stink bug feeds on plants, beginning in spring and continuing until late autumn. It consumes the sap of leaves, shoots, and fruits, damaging not only hazelnuts but also various seed-bearing and stone fruits, berries, and vegetables. The National Food Agency has implemented multiple measures to combat the pest, significantly reducing its population. These efforts have been positively assessed at the international level.

Disinformation linking the stink bug to the Lugar Laboratory has also been spread in the past. At that time, Maia Alkhazashvili, manager of the Public Health Research Center, and Mari Murtskhvaladze, a scientist at the Lugar Laboratory’s Genomics Center, told Myth Detector that researching agricultural crop diseases or controlling harmful insects is not within the laboratory’s competence.

Where Did African Swine Fever in Georgia Come From?

Nikoloz Mzhavanadze discusses the decline in the pig population in the Tianeti region, linking it to the Lugar Laboratory without specifying a concrete issue. The disease most commonly associated with high pig mortality, and often conspiratorially linked to the Lugar Laboratory, is African swine fever (ASF). African swine fever is a deadly and highly contagious infectious disease that affects domestic and wild pigs. While it poses no risk to humans, it presents a significant threat to pig farming.

African swine fever was first studied in 1921 in Kenya by Robert Eustace Montgomery, who described the mechanisms of its spread. Over the following decades, the disease spread to other African countries, reaching Portugal in 1957. The outbreak was initially contained by mass culling of pigs, but in 1960, ASF re-emerged in Portugal and later spread to Spain and France. The disease remained active in Europe until 1995, and a new wave of outbreaks began in 2007 when the virus was first detected in Georgia and rapidly spread throughout the country and the Caucasus region. In 2014, another ASF outbreak started in Eastern Europe, with the first cases appearing in the Baltic states and Poland.

ASF spreads through both live pigs and pork products, which is why countries implement biosecurity measures on pork imports. The main objective in preventing the spread of ASF is to ensure that the causative agent of the fever, infected animals or products, does not enter a country. The virus can also survive on surfaces such as clothing and footwear, meaning humans can also carry it, though ASF does not infect humans and poses no direct threat to them. When an outbreak occurs, quarantine measures must be enforced, and infected pigs must be culled. To prevent further spread, it is important to burn all carcasses and waste, along with contaminated facilities and equipment.

A 2008 study on ASF virus isolates confirmed that the virus strain responsible for the outbreak in Georgia originated from Southeast African countries. To determine the genotype of the virus, researchers compared DNA fragments from ASF isolates found in Georgian domestic pigs with other ASF virus (ASFV) isolates. The analysis revealed that the 2007 Georgian isolates were closely related to genotype II isolates, which circulate in Mozambique, Madagascar, and Zambia. It is believed that pigs in Georgia were infected after consuming contaminated pork, which was transported to the country via a cargo ship and subsequently spread throughout the region. Therefore, the spread of ASF in Georgia has no connection to the Lugar Laboratory.

Linking the outbreaks of African swine fever and the brown marmorated stink bug to the Lugar Laboratory is a conspiracy theory that aligns with Kremlin-backed disinformation narratives. Over the years, various actors, including representatives of de facto authorities in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as Russian officials, have repeatedly claimed that the stink bug outbreak originated from the Lugar Laboratory. Myth Detector has repeatedly fact-checked these claims. Read more in the following reports:

What Disinformation is Igor Giorgadze Spreading?

The aired segment on Sezoni TV featured a clip from a video published by Igor Giorgadze on YouTube on February 18. In the video, Giorgadze recalls discussing the Lugar Research Center in 2018 and presents footage from his past press conference. In the archival footage, Giorgadze claims that the Lugar Laboratory develops anthrax, plague, and so-called “swine flu.” He also alleges that, according to “documents,” experiments conducted on humans at the lab resulted in the deaths of 30 people in a single day, including 24 deaths in one day, 30 deaths in April 2016, and 13 in August. After his press conference, Russian propaganda media outlets actively disseminated these claims in 2018. However, Myth Detector fact-checked these allegations at the time. Giorgadze falsely linked these deaths to Georgia’s Hepatitis C treatment program and the drug Sovaldi, claiming it was being tested on the Georgian population. His claims are disinformation, aligned with Kremlin narratives, and continue to circulate periodically.

Due to worsening Hepatitis C statistics, Georgia requested assistance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in 2013. As a result, the pharmaceutical company Gilead committed to providing Hepatitis C medication to Georgia for free. Georgia received the drug Sovaldi at no cost, and it was used in the country’s Hepatitis C Elimination Program. Between 2015 and 2017, the program treated 36,012 patients, achieving a 98% cure rate, with 24,481 people recovering.

The Lugar Laboratory was involved in the Hepatitis C Elimination Program only in the diagnostic phase of the program, conducting only lab tests for patient diagnosis.

In 2018, along with his accusations, Giorgadze presented documents that he claimed proved his allegations. However, these documents were merely monthly reports covering the period from October 31 to November 30. The individuals Giorgadze mentioned had died over the course of a month in November, not on a single day. Notably, hundreds of thousands of people die globally each year from liver diseases related to Hepatitis C due to delayed treatment and other complications. Giorgadze also claimed that the documents showed the cause of death was unknown, but in six cases, the documents explicitly stated that the cause was complications related to Hepatitis C. Giorgadze falsely linked these deaths to Sovaldi, claiming it was an experimental drug, when in fact, Sovaldi is an FDA-approved medication widely used in Hepatitis C treatment. The two drugs used in Georgia’s elimination program – Sovaldi and Harvoni – had already been approved years earlier by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Sovaldi was approved by the FDA in 2013 and by the EMA in 2014. Harvoni was approved by both the FDA and the EMA in 2014. Interestingly, despite Russia’s disinformation campaign targeting Georgia’s Hepatitis C treatment program, the drug Sovaldi is classified as a vital and essential medicine in Russia.

For years, the Lugar Research Center has been the target of systematic Russian disinformation. These false accusations are part of a broader Kremlin-backed conspiracy narrative, which claims that the U.S. builds and funds dangerous biolaboratories in countries surrounding Russia. By doing so, the Kremlin attempts to portray routine scientific research in various fields as “hazardous” activities.

About Igor Giorgadze

Igor Giorgadze held various positions within the Soviet security services from 1973 to 1995. In 1980-1981, he participated in combat operations in Afghanistan as part of the KGB special forces unit “Cascade.” From 1993 to 1995, Giorgadze served as Georgia’s Minister of State Security. After the assassination attempt on President Eduard Shevardnadze in 1995, Giorgadze fled the country. That same year, he was placed on Interpol’s Red Notice list on charges of organizing the terrorist attack against the President. However, in 2016, Interpol dropped its search for Giorgadze, as he had been granted refugee status in Russia. While in exile, he founded the political party “Justice” and the organization “Anti-Soros” in Russia.

The article has been written in the framework of Facebook’s fact-checking program. You can read more about the restrictions that Facebook may impose based on this article via this link. You can find information about appealing or editing our assessment via this link.

Read detailed instructions for editing the article.
Read detailed appeal instructions.