The Soviet Biological Weapons Program - Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945 - page 154

try of Defense scientific research bodies in the fields of biotechnology and
genetics. 110 The Russian Ministry of Industry, Science, and Technology
has several projects designed to promote high-tech research in Russia. 111
Some of the financial support for these projects comes from government-
funded venture funds, including the A. V. Bortnik Fund (also known as
the Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises, or FASIE)
and the Russian Fund for Technological Development. 112
The Russian government has identified a wide range of areas and goals
for improving defenses against BW. These include promoting compre-
hensive, integrated legal statutes; supporting biological monitoring fa-
cilities and infrastructure; maintaining reference strains for diagnostic,
treatment, and research purposes; clearly delineating institutional areas
of responsibility; maintaining and enhancing international cooperation;
protecting human, plant, and animal life; implementing measures to
meet a perceived bioterrorist threat; and developing and maintaining
modern detection equipment and detection systems infrastructure.
Valentin Evstigneev, now a retired lieutenant general of the armed forces
medical service and the current first deputy director general of the joint-
stock company Biopreparat, has argued that such a system be controlled
by the State Committee on Problems of Biosecurity and by the Biotech-
nology and Security Agency. They would oversee industrial facilities, lab-
oratories, medical facilities, and scientific research organizations at the
national, regional, and local levels. The extent to which this plan has ac-
tually been implemented is not clear. However, the Center for Special
Laboratory Diagnosis and Treatment has been established at the Russian
Federation MOD's Virology Center (part of the Scientific Research Insti-
tute of Microbiology) as part of such an effort. 113 Reportedly the institute
is currently working on the further development of anthrax and plague
vaccines, antianthrax immunoglobulin, diagnostics, and sanitation mea-
sures for the Russian armed forces and civilian population. 114
Unresolved Concerns
Concerns persist about a continued lack of responsiveness by Russian of-
ficials to requests by other governments for clarification regarding the
fate of the former Soviet program, 115 the fact that a number of high-level
officials in the current Russian CBW defense establishment are known or