Satellite images, obtained by two specialized companies and collected by The Washington Post, indicate that the Kremlin is expanding and modernizing a laboratory from the Cold War era.
A former biological weapons research laboratory, which was used by the Soviet regime during the Cold War, will be expanded and renovated. This is the conclusion that The Washington Post draws from satellite images captured by two specialized companies. The Kremlin has not confirmed the recovery of this top-secret structure, but the movement there is raising concerns about Russia’s future military plans.
What is at stake is the Sergiyev Posad-6a military facility northeast of Moscow that has been a biological weapons research center for more than 40 years. According to The Washington Post, which publishes images obtained by the companies Planet Labs and Maxar, during the Cold War Russia used the laboratory to conduct experiments that included weaponizing the viruses that cause smallpox and Ebola, among other diseases.
As the decades passed, this seemed to be a completely abandoned place. But in recent years, especially after the Russian invasion of Ukraine (February 2022), construction trucks began to be seen bringing materials that would then have been used to construct 10 new buildings on a total area of about 75,000 square meters.
According to biosecurity experts who spoke to the American newspaper, the facilities appear to have some of the hallmarks of high-security biological laboratories that deal with dangerous pathogens. Among these features are extensive rooftop air handling units, underground infrastructure, enhanced security and a possible power plant.
The appearance of the infrastructure is “consistent with the design of a laboratory” and suggests that “maximum containment structures” were created there, said an expert quoted by The Washington Post. Andrew Weber, a former Pentagon official and senior member of the Strategic Risk Council, told the newspaper that “the updates are consistent with the historical role of this top-secret military biological facility in the development of viral biological weapons.”
The Kremlin did not want to comment on the Washington Post text, but there has already been news in Russia that conveyed the idea that the objective of the laboratories is to study the Ebola virus and other deadly microbes, to protect Russia from possible bioterrorist attacks.
Biological warfare is prohibited by international law. Although there is no evidence that Russia used such weapons in the war against Ukraine, kyiv has accused Moscow of launching thousands of chemical weapons attacks during the invasion.
Source: Observadora
