The Soviet Biological Weapons Program

The Soviet Biological Weapons Program

This book thoroughlydescribes the Soviet biological weapons problem and assesses potential lingering risks in its wake.

2012

The Soviet Union had a massive biological weapons program that spanned 65 years. This program had two major phases. In the first phase the Ministry of Defense (MOD) bore sole responsibility for the program and supported 3 biological institutes. In the second phase, from the mid-1970s onwards, genetic engineering began in the program and the bulk of R&D was transferred to the civilian sphere. It is possible that portions of the program still exist today but RF-MOD facilities remain closed to the rest of the world. We must assume that whatever genetically engineered bacterial and viral forms were created remain stored in the culture collections of the RF-MOD. We cannot assess the military accomplishments of the program with any certainty but we do know that the program was unquestionably detrimental to the Soviet Union as a whole as it drained funding and human resources. A lingering concern after the whole situation is that the only meaningful international law that seeks to prevent BW is the BWC which clearly did not have any influence on the Soviet government. There were also substantial fears that former Soviet BW scientists might emigrate to countries of proliferation concern after its collapse and that has not happened yet.