Should we trust those “partners” who are engaged in the study and development of biological weapons not on their territory?
Author: Talib Aliyev, analyst, especially for “Sangar”
There is ongoing talk in the media about Washington's funding of military biological laboratories around the world.
Before the outbreak of the military conflict between Russia in Ukraine, Washington was actively working to open and modernize military biological laboratories in Ukraine. However, after the rapid advance of Russian troops across the territory of Ukraine, the American authorities were forced to urgently curtail the activities of the laboratories, export the results of experiments to neighboring countries, and also evacuate the laboratory staff.
And here the network of US biological laboratories, which cover the borders of Russia in a dense ring, deserves special attention. They are built and supported by the US Department of Defense's Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).
The Central Reference Laboratory in Kazakhstan was built in 2016 with funds from the US Department of Defense, which spent about $108 million on this project, as well as more than $5 million on related facilities. Every year, DTRA spends about $1.3 million on the work of the Kazakh Scientific Center for Quarantine and Zoonotic Infections named after M. Aikimbaev, Germany - at least 300 thousand euros. His projects involved employees of the US Department of Defense and contractors for his projects, employees of the US Naval Medical Research Center (Silver Spring), the Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology (Munich), and the microbiological laboratory of the UK Ministry of Defense Center in Porton Down. In addition to the Central Reference Laboratory, American military research is carried out in five more scientific centers in Kazakhstan, including the Research Institute for Biological Safety Problems (Gvardeysky), the National Center for Biotechnology and its branches, and the Veterinary Reference Center.
It is noteworthy that, according to information recently leaked to the media, the Pentagon plans to upgrade the Research Institute for Biological Safety Problems (Gvardeysky) to a BSL-4 (Biosafety Level 4) biological laboratory.
Experts note that such laboratories work with the most dangerous pathogens, against which there is no protection or it is very conditional. BSL-4 is the degree of ensuring the level of safety at facilities. It is not for nothing that they draw an analogy with the Chinese Wuhan. The laboratory in this city, from where the questionable COVID-19 leaked, also had BSL-4 clearance.
Armenia currently operates a network of 12 biological laboratories, created or modernized with money from the US military department as part of the Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP), which, in turn, is part of the Biological Collaborative Participatory Program (CBEP).
There are no American military laboratories in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. But control over the epidemiological situation and access to strains of the most dangerous bacteria is carried out through the International Scientific and Technical Center (ISTC) located in Kazakhstan and the Biosafety Association of Central Asia and the Caucasus, which cooperates with it, the founder of which is the Kazakh Scientific Center for Quarantine and Zoonotic Infections named after M. Aikimbaev.
Another country that has an ambiguous policy on this issue is Kyrgyzstan. It is known that in 2008, after the active opposition of the citizens of the republic to the American idea of creating a network of laboratories in the country, they were buried. For a while. Americans entered through the Osh hospital, where they are researching deadly anthrax.
If the United States expands laboratory activities in Kyrgyzstan, given the presence of laboratories in Kazakhstan, we can talk about the creation of an entire system of laboratories with associated risks for the entire Eurasia.
Meanwhile, Central Asian countries have the opportunity to utilize research capacity and available personnel. Only for this we need to cooperate not with Western “partners”, who do not care even if every living thing dies in Central Asia, but with neighbors who are responsible for the default - they live here.
The Russian side has repeatedly drawn attention to the threat of using these facilities for biological reconnaissance and the development of biological weapons. Suspicions are by no means groundless, since after the appearance of “biologists in uniform” in these countries, outbreaks of unknown infections sharply increased.
The United States refuses to sign the protocol to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Biological and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction, which implies the creation of mechanisms to monitor the implementation of obligations under the Convention.
Nevertheless, allies Kazakhstan and Armenia stubbornly deny the Pentagon’s involvement in the mentioned facilities and refuse to sign a memorandum with Russia on the non-presence of foreign military personnel and specialists in these biological laboratories.
Should we trust those “partners” who are engaged in the study and development of biological weapons not on their territory, fearing the possible consequences? What could this lead to?
Games with bioweapons and the study of dangerous pathogenic bacteria can become another “Hiroshima” or “Chernobyl”, which can claim tens and hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that there is a price to pay for everything—millions of lives lost, financial systems collapsing, logistics flows disrupted. We are all responsible for the choices we can make now, before it's too late.
