Two research institutes of the Russian Ministry of Defense: the 33rd Central Research and Testing Institute (33rd TsNII) and the 48th Central Research Institute (48th TsNII) were blacklisted by the US Department of Commerce on Wednesday, August 26. This is reported by TASS with reference to the American Federal Register.
It is noted that the research institutes included in the list were suspected of working on chemical and biological weapons.
The list also included the Moscow State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology (GosNIIOKhT) and three objects of the 48th Central Research Institute located in Sergiev Posad, Yekaterinburg and the Kirov region, says Gazeta.Ru.
In total, 60 organizations from Russia, China, France, Indonesia, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Switzerland and the UAE were included in the list.
Earlier, the Communications Security Center of Canada, the US National Security Agency and the British Cybersecurity Center issued statements claiming that Russia had carried out hacker attacks on institutions in these countries in order to obtain data on the development of a vaccine against COVID-19.
Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that Russia had nothing to do with hacker attacks.
On August 11, Russia was the first in the world to register a vaccine against coronavirus infection called Sputnik V. The drug was developed by the Gamaleya Center. The Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation announced the launch of it into production.