By Bryan Bender
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The United States plans to pay scientists in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to collaborate on new vaccines and other defenses against biological threats.  The program marks the first time former Soviet scientists in both countries would receive U.S. threat reduction funds to conduct peaceful research, according to officials involved in the effort.

Under the Cooperative Threat Reduction program, the United States has helped fund a variety of peaceful research projects in Russia through the International Science and Technology Center, established in 1992 by several nations.  The center is designed to steer peaceful research projects to former weapons scientists to ensure the experts’ knowledge is not diverted to help rogue states or terrorist groups to advance their WMD programs.

In Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, however, U.S threat reduction projects have so far focused only on helping the two states dismantle nuclear weapons-related equipment and materials left over from the Cold War, and to finance security upgrades at weapons facilities.

Now, the CTR program plans to expand the U.S. contribution to efforts to utilize the scientific expertise resident in both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan — both had a long experience in the Soviet biological weapons complex — in the quest for new defenses against biological terrorism.

First Funds for Biological Research

Under the Cooperative Biodefense Research Project, U.S. research personnel will be placed in former Soviet biological weapons research institutes in both countries, where they will work side-by-side with their counterparts on projects approved by the U.S. Defense Department. 

Some of the projects, according to U.S. defense officials, would include using former Soviet biological weapons expertise to enhance U.S. biological defense programs.  In addition, some projects would promote commercial activities at the facilities by Western companies, governments and other entities.

“What is noteworthy is this is the first effort in the biological research area” in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, said Cindi Mentz, director of nonproliferation programs at the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation, which is slated to administer the effort for the Pentagon.  “They are going to start engaging the scientists in research that is not weapons-related,” she said.

Vast Expertise

Both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have highly sophisticated biological research experience left over from the Soviet biological weapons program, which existed despite Soviet membership in the Biological Weapons Convention banning offensive biological research programs.

The Soviet Union employed 70,000 biologists and chemists at the height of its weapons programs, many of whom could help accelerate other states’ or terrorist groups’ efforts to develop doomsday weapons, according to experts.  The Soviet Union is believed to have weaponized as many as 50 biological agents, genetically engineering some of them to be resistant to antibiotics.

Kazakhstan, which is not party to the Biological Weapons Convention but has declared its commitment to nonproliferation, had and still operates a variety of former Soviet biological weapons facilities. 

These include Biomedpreparat, a large-scale former anthrax production facility located at Stepnogorsk, which has been dismantled with CTR funds; the still-operational Scientific Research Agricultural Institute at Otar, which specializes in anti-crop and anti-livestock diseases; and Biokombinat, a small facility located in the former capital of Almaty that is now producing vaccines.

Both the Otar and Almaty facilities are believed to house extensive collections of virulent strains, according to the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

Uzbekistan, which is a signatory to the BWC, has also inherited several former Soviet biological weapons facilities. 

The Institute of Virology in Tashkent now focuses its research on human viral diseases.  Meanwhile, the Tashkent Center for Prophylaxis and Quarantine of Most Hazardous Diseases specializes in bacterial diseases and was once part of what was known as the Soviet anti-plague system. In the 1960s, the anti-plague system created vaccines to combat a potential biological attack against the Soviet Union.

Both facilities have extensive collections of microorganisms, including bacteria that cause plague, brucellosis, anthrax and tularemia, according to the Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

The largest Soviet biological test facility was located on Vozrozhdeniya Island in the Aral Sea, two-thirds of which lies in Uzbek territory.  The CTR program is funding a two-stage project to clean up the island and dismantle its infrastructure (see GSN, Nov. 20, 2002).  The United States has allocated $6 million to decontaminate 11 pits containing anthrax bacteria.  The budget and timing for dismantling the facility have yet to be determined.

Pentagon to Select Project Administrator

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which oversees most of the decade-old CTR program, announced its plans last month when it tapped the Civilian Research and Development Foundation as the “designated agent” to administer biological research projects in both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

The CRDF is a private, nonprofit organization authorized by the U.S. Congress and established by the National Science Foundation in 1995.  The foundation supports joint basic and applied research between the United States and the countries of the former Soviet Union.

“The foundation supports exceptional merit-reviewed research projects that offer [former Soviet Union] scientists and engineers alternatives to emigration; help prevent the dissolution of the FSU’s scientific and technological infrastructure; and advance the transition of weapons scientists to civilian work,” said Chantel Guess, CRDF’s communications manager.

“The CRDF also helps to move applied research to the marketplace by teaming U.S. companies with FSU scientists,” she said.

The foundation will disburse funds to scientists, engineers and other staff at Kazakh and Uzbek research institutes selected for support by DTRA, procure and transfer equipment and supplies to the institutes, provide in-country support, and execute specific projects.

“CRDF is the only U.S. source that works directly with [biological weapons] scientists in the FSU with a mission to instruct FSU scientists on how to create collaborative biodefense research proposals and to locate U.S. scientists as partners in their efforts,” DTRA said last month in a project description.

“This is a new role for us in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan,” said Mentz.  “It’s a lot of work to handle the funding and administrative tasks. We already have a mechanism because we have other work in these countries,” she said.

About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines

HOME  |  CONTACT US  |  GET INVOLVED  |  SITE MAP

Back to top