The Soviet Union’s Agricultural Biowarfare Programme : Ploughshares to Swords

This book focuses upon the secret agricultural biological warfare programme codenamed Ekologiya – which was pursued by the Soviet Union from 1958 through to the collapse of the USSR in 1991. It was the largest offensive agricultural biowarfare project the world has ever seen and Soviet anti-crop and anti-livestock weapons had the capability to inflict enormous damage on Western agriculture. Beginning in the early 1970s, there was a new focus within the Soviet agricultural biowarfare programme on molecular biology and the development of genetically modified agents. A key characteristic of the Ekologiya project was the creation of mobilization production facilities. These ostensibly civil manufacturing plants incorporated capacity for production of biowarfare agents in wartime emergency. During the 1990s-2000s, the counter-proliferation efforts undertaken by the US and UK played a major role in preventing the transfer of Ekologiya scientists, technologies and pathogens to Iran and other countries of potential proliferation concern. Anthony Rimmington is a former Senior Research Fellow at Birmingham University’s Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies, UK. He has published widely on the civil life sciences sector in the post-Soviet states and on the Soviet Union’s offensive biological warfare programme, including Stalin’s Secret Weapon: The Origins of Soviet Biological Warfare . Acknowledgements Contents About the Author List of Figures Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Origins: The International Race to Develop Anti-crop and Anti-livestock Biological Weapons The Initial Soviet Post-War Anti-crop Biological Warfare Programme The Trigger: The US Offensive Biological Warfare Programme Targeting the Soviet Union Chapter 3: Codename Ekologiya: Khrushchev and the Launch of the Soviet Union’s Large-Scale Agricultural Biowarfare Programme The Generals in Charge: Military Oversight of the Ekologiya Programme First Steps: Pursuit of the Ekologiya Programme at the Palace on the Znamenskoe-Sadki Estate The Concentration of Veterinary BW Facilities in the Vladimir Region The Gvardeiskii Experimental Proving Ground: Biological Warfare on the Kazakh Steppe An Invisible Network: Visiting Western Plant Pathology and Veterinary Specialists Are Unaware of the Existence of the New Agricultural BW Facilities Numbers Employed in the Ministry of Agriculture’s BW Programme The Targeting of China by the Ekologiya Programme? Chapter 4: From Estonia to Sakhalin Island: The Expansion of the USSR Ministry of Agriculture’s Toxic Archipelago in the 1970s and 1980s The Interdepartmental Council and the New Focus on Molecular Biology The Development of Linkages to the USSR Ministry of Defence, Biopreparat and Other Branches of the Soviet BW Programme The Expansion of the Ekologiya Programme and the Opening of New Facilities in Estonia, Armenia and Tajikistan Harnessing Virulent Plant Pathogens from the Soviet Network of Monitoring Stations and Plant Breeding Facilities Africa as a Source of Novel Pathogens? The International Dimensions of the Ekologiya Programme The Emergence of the New Scientific Leadership of the Soviet Anti-crop BW Programme The Maintenance of a Strict Regime of Secrecy Within the GUNIiEPU Network: Security Measures in Place at Ekologiya Facilities in Uzbekistan and Georgia The Launch of the Flora Programme and the Development of Tactical Herbicides for the Military Alibek’s Account of the Early Termination of GUNIiEPU’s BW Programme Chapter 5: Heart of Darkness: The Creation of Reserve Mobilisation Capacity for Production of Viral Agents The Soviet System of Mobilisation Preparedness The Creation of Reserve Mobilisation Production Facilities for Anti-agricultural Agents BW Mobilisation Capacity at the Pokrov Biologics Plant Identification of Mobilisation Capacity at Pokrov by Western Visitors The Nature of Activity at Pokrov: Linkages to an Alleged Soviet Variola Virus Programme Delivery Systems for Weaponised Agricultural BW Agents Chapter 6: Through a Glass Darkly: Analysis of the Soviet Union’s Military Agricultural R&D Programmes Western Intelligence Assessments of the Soviet Agricultural Biowarfare Programme Central Asia’s “Sverdlovsk Incident”? The Rinderpest (Cattle Plague) Programme and the First Major Disease Outbreak from an Ekologiya Laboratory The Pursuit of FMD Research Programmes by VNIYaI Construction of FMD Vaccine Facilities by the Soviet Union VNIIVViM’s Focus on Anthrax R&D Programmes in Vol’ginskii and Gvardeiskii Focused on African Swine Fever (ASF) and African Horse Sickness (AHS) Sheeppox, Goatpox and Fowlpox Viruses R&D Programmes Conducted by Soviet Anti-crop BW Facilities: Rice Blast (Magnaporthe grisea) and Rice Bacteriosis (Xanthomonas oryzae) Late Blight of Potatoes (Phytophthora infestans) Diseases of Cereal Crops The Use of Insects to Transmit Plant Pathogens Offence or Defence? The Conflicting Narratives with Regard to the Ekologiya Programme Chapter 7: From Military to Agro-industrial Complex: The Legacy of the Agricultural BW Programme in the Post-Soviet States The Collapse of the USSR and the Evacuation of Weapons Scientists to the Russian Federation The Transfer to Civil Control of Russia’s Anti-crop and Anti-livestock Facilities Iran and the Proliferation Threat Arising in the Wake of the Collapse of the Soviet Union From Isolated Cold War Outpost to National Lead-Edge Plant Pathology Research Centre: The “Rediscovery” of Georgia’s Soviet-Era Time Capsule The Role of Kobuleti in Soviet Military Programmes The UK Ministry of Defence Counters the Critical Proliferation Threat in Kobuleti: The Launch of the Pilot Biological Redirection Project The Yerevan Branch of VNIYaI Emerges as the Main Research Hub of the Armenian Veterinary Sector The Fate of Kazakhstan’s Agricultural Biowarfare Facilities The Use of Former Soviet Weapons Scientists in the War Against Drugs Chapter 8: Conclusion Characteristics of the Ekologiya BW Programme Soviet Rationale for the Launch of the Ekologiya Programme The Achievements of the Soviet Agricultural BW Programme Ekologiya’s Legacy Appendix A: Soviet/Russian Abbreviations and Acronyms Appendix B: Composition of the Scientific and Technical Council (NTS) and Interbranch Scientific and Technical Council for Molecular Biology and Genetics (MNTS) USSR Ministry of Agriculture’s Scientific and Technical Council (NTS) Members of the Plant Section (23 December 1963)1 Interbranch Scientific and Technical Council for Molecular Biology and Genetics (MNTS) Members Appendix C: Lead Scientists in the Ekologiya Programme Index