Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
the All-Union Research Institute of Molecular Biology and is officially
under the control of the Russian Federation Ministry of Health. Vector's
areas of BW expertise during the Soviet period included Ebola virus,
Lassa virus, Marburg virus, and variola virus.
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Defensive and Offensive Activities
The Soviet Union carried out R&D on the full range of traditional agents.
According to Ken Alibek, the major R&D included work on
Bacillus an-
thracis, Brucella spp.,
Ebola virus and Marburg virus, Junin virus, Lassa vi-
rus, Machupo virus, (equine) encephalitides,
Burkholderia mallei, Burkhol-
deria pseudomallei, Yersinia pestis,
variola virus, and
Francisella tularensis.
48
The Soviet program also addressed the problems of detection, prevention,
and treatment, as well as all major elements associated with the identi-
fication, evaluation, and testing of agents for possible eventual large-scale
production, storage, or weaponization.
Once an agent became designated as a “military strain” it might be pro-
duced for long-term storage (such as freeze-dried
Bacillus anthracis
spores)
or be produced on a regular basis to replenish aging stocks as they became
less virulent over time (for example,
Yersinia pestis
). It is uncertain how
agents were selected for screening and the process by which they were
then selected for more extensive laboratory work and testing in order to
be eventually filled into weapons.
The USSR placed great emphasis on the principle of maintaining large
standby production capacity in case of national emergency. A part of the
effort to maintain such a capacity was to ensure ease of convertibility of
civilian facilities to military production.
Research Activities
Soviet research activities in the biological area fell into two major catego-
ries: basic research with either offensive or defensive applications, and
applied work for offensive or defensive purposes.
49
Determining whether published research indicates an offensive or de-
fensive program can be problematic. For example, some have pointed to
research on enhancing the virulence of pathogens and developing antibi-
otic resistant strains as evidence for an offensive BW program. Additional
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