The unsubstantiated claims were made by a Russian political analyst during a radio interview on Wednesday. Valery Solovey, who until recently was a professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and now works as a researcher for the US Wilson Center, told Echo Moskvy that he believed military virologists had made the frightening discovery while studying the outbreak in Italy. However, Express.co.uk has since been told by a spokesperson at Public Health England that this is not true.