With the instability in Russia, there is concern over leakage of technology and materials with WMD
applications. Several times, European police forces have recovered nuclear material that was
smuggled out of Russia and onto the black market.
Figure 2-4. Former Yugoslav Chemical Warfare Program
3. Former Soviet Biological Warfare Program.
Russia inherited the former Soviet's biological warfare infrastructure. The Soviet Ministry of Defense
funded institutes researching aerobiology, cloud physics, airborne infections and disease agent
stabilization. Installations for the production and weaponization of disease agents and toxins were
established. A number of biological warfare agents were developed. A biological warfare testing
ground was maintained on Vozrozhdeniya Island in the Aral Sea. In April of 1979, at a military
biological warfare research, production and -storage facility in Sverdlosk, as much as 22 pounds of dry
Anthrax spores were released. Within two weeks, hundreds of Soviet citizens had died from Anthrax
inhalation.
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