Red Death: History of Russian secret weapons]

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> " Red Death " : History of Russian secret weapons

>09/24/2004 20:52

>http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/379/14312_bioweapon.html

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>Soviet biotechnology stimulated development of Western science

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>Regardless of the commonly perceived notion concerning the underdeveloped

>state of Soviet genetics, molecular-genetic researches have been developing

>quite rapidly and with great deal of success during the last decade of the

>Soviet empire. Nowadays, all leading Russian experts in the area of

>molecular biology are working abroad.

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>When the SARS (Sever Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus mystically emerged in

>China and began its way worldwide, it lead some scientists to believe they

>were dealing with a biological weapon of some sort. According to their

>presumptions, the virus has been developed and afterwards illegally acquired

>in China on the local black market.

>

>In connection with recent events evolving around biological threats, the

>West cannot help but think of a man who had once created an entire array of

>most hazardous samples of biological weapons. Not one of today " s masterminds

>of Soviet era come close to a 52-year-old Soviet scientist Vladimir

>Pasechkin. He used to be considered the world's leading expert in biological

>wars.

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>In October of 1989 Pasechnik decided to stay in England; after he escaped

>the USSR, he " s been discussing his work with deadly viruses and bacteria in

>numerous interviews with British special services for two years in a row.

>His stories have deeply shocked British intelligence analysts. They mainly

>concerned strategic missiles aimed at American towns and filled with

>genetically modified viruses of horrible diseases.

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>>From 1974 to 1981 Pasechnik has built a special laboratory with 400 staff

>members. He " s come up with t a tremendous budget; the finances enabled him

>to provide the best access to all up-to-date developments in the sphere of

>biotechnologies in the West. The lab began its official work in 1981. Two

>years later, Pasechnik has learned the truth: he found himself in the center

>of the entire chain of factories and laboratories that were developing new

>bio weapons. " Officially, we were developing some new vaccines., " later

>recalled Pasechnik. " In reality however, we were working on creating new

>technologies within the framework of a gigantic program of biological war. "

>

>At first, Pasechnik had a rather vague idea of the scale of the entire

>operation. It was not until later that he " s learned about two other labs

>(similar to his) that had been built in Moscow, another two in the Moscow

>suburbs and one more in Novosibirsk. Apparently, each and every single one

>of them had been working on the same project. Five more industrial

>facilities with 15 000 staff employees had been operating in other ends of

>the country. The company called " Bio substance " had a budget of 200 million

>rubles as well as $10 million USD.

>

>This was one of the greatest secrets of the Cold war. The company " s main job

>was to come up with new cultures of microbes, more powerful than any

>existing types and manufacturing them in spray cans.

>

>Pasechnik's lab was preoccupied with an interesting work: they attempted to

>find new ways of filling shells, bombs and missiles with microbes and

>ensuring their spread across vast territories once they hit the targeted

>area.

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>Soviet Ministry of Defense was fully aware of the effectiveness of

>biological weapons. Known as special-purpose weapon, it was meant to be used

>not only as the final measure after nuclear explosion, but also during a

>non-nuclear conflict to attack reserve troops. Each part of the program

>violated the 1972 Convention signed by the Soviet Union which banned the use

>of biological and chemical weapons. Who knows what would've happened, if

>Gorbachev had not come to power.

>

>Gorbachev " s epoch enables Pasechnik to change the direction of his research

>work at the lab. As a true scientist, Pasechnik could not stop worrying

>about the results he was getting.

>

>NaÎve Soviet Scientist could not even conceive the idea that his work had

>somehow violated International agreement of 1972. He did however feel that

>the weapon he was working on was in fact a disgrace to his scientific

>professionalism. In addition, he could not have possibly been totally

>unaware of the fact that his genetically-modified weapon was a crime against

>humanity.

>

>So, after a number of turbulent years, Pasechnik has finally settled in

>England. He works for a British company, loves his job. Around this time

>however world " s leading microbiologists start dying under rather strange

>circumstances. Eleven scientists have mystically died in the course of half

>a year. All of them were somehow related to the development of

>bacteriological weapons. The first three scientists died in 2001. Several

>days afterwards, Vladimir Pasechnik dies suddenly in Salsbury. His body was

>found not far from his house. According to a later report, he died of a

>heart attack. More deaths occurred afterwards.

>

>It appears that profession of a microbiologist could become one of the most

>dangerous ones.

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>Read the original in Russian: (Translated by: Anna Ossipova)

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