Chief Russian Communist Blames U.S. for Bird Flu

For the second time this year, the head of Russia's Communist Party has made a wild accusation against the U.S., saying America is responsible for the spread of bird flu in Europe.

"The forms of warfare are changing. It's strange that not a single duck has died in America - they are all dying in Russia and European countries," Gennady Zyuganov said at a press conference in Moscow.

"This makes one seriously wonder why."

Zyuganov said he learned about biological warfare during his time in the Russian Red Army.

"I tested all kinds of war gases at a range myself," he was quoted by UPI as saying.

Asked whether he thinks the bird flu outbreak could be a deliberate attack by the U.S., Zyuganov declared: "I not only suggest this, I know very well how this can be arranged. There is nothing strange here."

An outbreak of bird flu was first reported in Central Siberia in August 2005. Russian researchers, unlike Zyuganov, believe the flu was carried into Russia by migratory birds.

This is the same Zyuganov who told a news conference in February that the publication of cartoons offensive to Muslims was part of a U.S. plot.

He said the publication of the cartoons was a "well-thought-out major provocation using newspapers and magazines to aggravate the situation, the relationship between the European countries and the Muslim world."

He claimed that the riots sparked by the cartoons could only benefit the U.S. and said "those who have raised this hysteria, insulted religious feelings of one and a half billion Muslims, are pushing Europe into the arms of the American military clique."