Scientific Research Institute of Medicine of the Ministry of Defense in Sergiyev Posad

Sergiyev Posad-6 (also Zagorsk-6, and Scientific Research Institute of Medicine of the Ministry of Defense in Zagorsk) is a major biological weapons research centre located near the city of Sergiyev Posad. It focusses on pathogens causing hemorrhagic fever, smallpox and Ebola.[1]

As of 2024, the centre is undergoing a significant expansion.

Name

The first name of this facility was Military Unit 62992, which was replaced with Scientific Research Institute of Medicine of the Ministry of Defense in Zagorsk (now Sergiyev Posad).[2] "Zagorsk-6" and "Sergiyev Posad-6" are short names formed according to the Soviet practice for closed cities: the name of a nearby city and a special postcode. In 2006 it was renamed the Virological Center of the Ministry of Defense’s Institute of Microbiology.[3]

Sergiyev Posad-6 is one of the three facilities belonging to the 48th Central Scientific Research Institute.[4]

History

Soviet Union

The Institute was founded in 1954 as the result of the merger of the disbanded open All-Union Scientific Research Institute for Vaccines and Sera (ASRIVS) and the closed Scientific Research Institute for Sanitation; the first commander of the Institute was M. I. Kostyuchenok.[2] It occupied the ASRIVS' former facilities, which is the reason why older residents refer to it as "Vaktsina" ("vaccine").[2] The Soviet military leadership identified a lack of agencies working on military use of viruses and rickettsiales, and Zagorsk-6 had all the required high-containment biological facilities and equipment to conduct virology research.[5] Colonel general Aleksandr Smirnov [ru] was personally overseeing the development of the Research institute and brought many top scientists, doctors and the best university graduates to work there.[5] The pay and benefits were very lucrative, however, the oppressive security measures were hindering the work -- for example, the associates of different laboratories could not talk to each other even if they belonged to the same department; another rule prevented the use of the Moscow libraries, so the researchers had to resort to experimentation.[6]

Zagorsk-6 scientists tested many pathogens: the rickettsiology programmes worked on creating biological weapons based on Coxiella burnetii (causes Q fever), Rickettsia prowazekii (causes epidemic typhus), Rickettsia conorii (causes boutonneuse fever) and Rickettsia rickettsii (causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever).[7] Among those, Coxiella burnetii was validated for use as a biological weapon.[8] The virology and entomology programmes were interconnected in Zagorsk-6 because most viruses they studied were arboviruses.[9] The employees raised mosquitoes who carried the yellow fever virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus and Japanese encephalitis virus; they also studied the military potential of viral hemorrhagic fever viruses and worked on vaccines, for example, for the Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus.[10] The strains of hemorrhagic fever viruses reached the USSR from West Germany via an official strain exchange programme, despite urban legends about Soviet KGB agents who exhumed victims of the Marburg virus to get tissue samples.[11]

The lead researchers working on the hemorrhagic fever viruses were Viktor Zhdanov (Marburg virus, Lassa virus and Machupo virus), N. I. Gonchar and V. A. Pshenichnov (Marburg virus).[12] Zagorsk-6 scientists attempted to create a cure for Marburg virus and unsuccessfully used gamma globulin on VECTOR lead scientists Nikolay Ustinov and L. A. Akinfeeva who got the Marburg virus.[12] Most of this work occurred in the Building 18.[12] In 1979, another R&D building was added to the institute: Building 78, which had better conditions and more modern equipment; its staff focussed on Ebola virus.[3] The work on Ebola culminated in creating an antibody for emergency prophylaxis against it in 1995; the director of Zagorsk-6, Aleksandr Makhlay [ru], was awarded the title of the Hero of the Russian Federation for this work.[3] Zagorsk-6 scientists reportedly worked in Kindia, Republic of Guinea, possibly on Lassa virus.[13]

Variola virus that causes smallpox was acquired by the Zagorsk-6 scientists sometime in late 1950s or early 1960s, potentially from the Indian visitor who became the index case of the 1959–1960 Moscow smallpox outbreak [ru], or during the WHO-USSR virus strain exchange programme.[14] The strain, called India-1967, was then weaponised and tested on Vozrozhdeniya Island.[14] Other poxviruses were also studied; Zagorsk-6 researchers had success with detection and diagnosis, but treatment of these viruses remained a challenge.[15]

Zagorsk-6 had the capacity to produce viral and rickettsial bioweapon agents on the small scale, but not in industrial quantities.[13]

Russia

After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the Zagorsk-6 city was renamed Sergiyev Posad-6, and the Institute shut down almost all research and development due to the lack of funding.[16] The existence of the Soviet biological weapon programme was acknowledged only in 1992, but the Zagorsk-6 facility has never been inspected by foreign citizens.[4]

In 1999, a new biological research centre was established on the grounds of the original institute.[16]

The 2024 US State Department report "assesses that Russia maintains an offensive [biological weapons] program" and actively modernises the 48th Central Scientific Research Institute.[4] Ten new buildings were erected, including at least four maximum pathogen protection level biological laboratories.[1][4] The Russian state media released video footage of the ex-Minister of Defence Sergey Shoigu and the commander of the Russian NBC Protection Troops, Igor Kirillov, touring the facility.[4]

The expansion started in 2021 with the spending that year being five times the amount in 2016-2020; it continued throughout 2024.[4]

In May 2021, USA imposed sanctions on all three scientific research institutes in the 48 Central Scientific Research Institutes, including Sergiyev Posad-6.[17]

Buildings

During the first years, single scientists lived in barracks and families rented accommodation in Zagorsk and nearby villages (Zubtsovo, Varavino and Ryazantsy).[5] Later, Zagorsk-6 housed up to 6,000 scientists and their family members, so the walled institute complex included many apartment complexes and at least one school.[1]

Buildings 18 and 78: Research and Development[18]

A vivarium was added to the Institute around 1954 to host animals used for experimental infections, pathogen propagation and testing of the treatments; the most important species there were primates such as green monkeys, rhesus macaques and baboons.[19]

The institute's scientific-technical library was opened in 1954 and hosted books from various Soviet scientific research institutes as well as the tomes taken from the Friedrich Loeffler Institute during the World War II -- in total, more than 60,000 book volumes and about 80,000 periodicals as of 2004.[20]

Building 5: Information Analysis department[20] It was first equipped with slide rules and German electromechanical calculators, but acquired a Minsk-22 computer in 1968 and ES PEVM (Soviet clone of the IBM PC) in 1983.[20] It expanded its scope in the 2000s by participating in the Unified System for Identification and Estimation of Scales and Consequences of the Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction[a] and supporting its biological branch.[20] As of 2012, it works on the mathematical models of the epidemiological processes for the Russian Ministry of Defence and the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences.[13]

In 1954, Zagorsk-6 established the Museum of Viruses and Rickettsiae; Roza Lukina was his first director and occupied this position for 35 years.[19] The museum's collection includes strains of the most pathogenic hemorrhagic fever viruses.[19]

Commanders

Notes

Footnotes

  1. ^ Единая система выявления и оценки масштабов и последствий применения оружия массового поражения и аварий (разрушений) на РХБ-опасных объектах (ЕСВОП)

References

  1. ^ a b c Warrick & Ley 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Leitenberg, Zilinskas & Kuhn 2012, p. 86-87.
  3. ^ a b c Leitenberg, Zilinskas & Kuhn 2012, p. 94.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Krutov & Dobrynin 2024.
  5. ^ a b c Leitenberg, Zilinskas & Kuhn 2012, p. 87.
  6. ^ Leitenberg, Zilinskas & Kuhn 2012, p. 88.
  7. ^ Leitenberg, Zilinskas & Kuhn 2012, p. 88-89.
  8. ^ Leitenberg, Zilinskas & Kuhn 2012, p. 89.
  9. ^ Leitenberg, Zilinskas & Kuhn 2012, p. 90.
  10. ^ Leitenberg, Zilinskas & Kuhn 2012, p. 91.
  11. ^ Leitenberg, Zilinskas & Kuhn 2012, p. 92.
  12. ^ a b c Leitenberg, Zilinskas & Kuhn 2012, p. 93.
  13. ^ a b c Leitenberg, Zilinskas & Kuhn 2012, p. 98.
  14. ^ a b Leitenberg, Zilinskas & Kuhn 2012, p. 95.
  15. ^ Leitenberg, Zilinskas & Kuhn 2012, p. 95-96.
  16. ^ a b Leitenberg, Zilinskas & Kuhn 2012, p. 99.
  17. ^ Russia, U. S. Mission (2 March 2021). "U.S. Sanctions and Other Measures Imposed on Russia in Response to Russia's Use of Chemical Weapons". U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Russia. Retrieved 25 December 2024.
  18. ^ Leitenberg, Zilinskas & Kuhn 2012, p. 93-94.
  19. ^ a b c Leitenberg, Zilinskas & Kuhn 2012, p. 96.
  20. ^ a b c d Leitenberg, Zilinskas & Kuhn 2012, p. 97.

Bibliography