EXPLAINED: Why Would World Leaders Balk At Giving Russian President Vladimir Putin DNA?

If knowledge is power, knowing the intimate secrets of one’s DNA could be a powerful weapon. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz refused to let Russia conduct a PCR test — while French officials said President Emmanuel Macron balked at some of the requirements to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, leading to speculation he didn’t want the Russian swab either. A French official said Russia’s conditions for Macron to get close to Putin were “not acceptable” and “not compatible” with the French president’s agenda. It’ll give you some information, but it’s not going to tell you how you can assassinate somebody.” But even without the capability to build an individually targeted bioweapon, the power of suggestion can be enough to compromise world leaders, and Russia has been known to employ kompromat — blackmailing someone by threatening to release embarrassing information about them. Obama-era diplomatic cables revealed by Wikileaks instructed U.S. diplomats in select African countries to collect “fingerprints, facial images, DNA, and iris scans” from “key and emerging” officials, including religious and business leaders.