The Washington Post website reports that since the beginning of the war against Ukraine, Russia has been expanding the Sergiev Posad-6 biological weapons laboratory near Moscow. Ten new buildings with an area of 23,000 square meters were built.
Journalists analyzed satellite images collected by Google Earth and commercial imaging companies. They showed construction machines renovating the old laboratory and starting construction of new buildings.
Satellite images taken in April and May 2023 show the construction of an underground tunnel connecting the laboratories and the power plant, with enough space “for vehicles and personnel to move in a safe and weather-controlled space,” the newspaper claims.
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Some of the buildings, according to “WP”, have features suggesting that they house biological laboratories intended to work with particularly dangerous pathogens. This is indicated by the layout, underground infrastructure, increased security measures and a small power plant located on the site.
In addition, the four buildings were equipped with many ventilation devices that are usually used in high-security laboratory buildings.
Work to clear the area began a few months after the invasion
It is impossible to determine based on satellite images whether Russia plans to conduct offensive research on… biological weaponsemphasized the portal. However, Andrew Weber, a retired specialist Pentagon researching Russian biological weapons facilities, said he was concerned about Moscow's decision to expand a military laboratory at a top-secret site known for its former role in biological weapons research.
In April 2024, the military head of the laboratory, Sergei Borisevich, in an interview for the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, called the facility near Moscow “the basis of the country's biological defense system.”
According to him, it aims to create medical supplies to protect troops and the population from biological weapons that could be used by Russia's enemies, including foreign states and terrorist groups.
The Washington Post noted that work to clear the area began a few months after Russia invaded Ukraineand “during the Kremlin's disinformation campaign accusing the US of helping Kiev create a secret biological weapons program.”
The Kremlin denies the existence of biological weapons in Russia
Russia filed a formal complaint in UN in June 2022, claiming, without evidence, that Ukraine is preparing to use biological weapons.
The Soviet Union used a similar scenario to justify its biological weapons program in the 1970s and 1980s. Not long after when United States banned biological weapons and destroyed their Cold War stockpiles, Soviet authorities put tens of thousands of scientists to work on an expanded program related to the combat use of anthrax, smallpox and plague.
The Russian project was exposed by defectors from the USSR, including several leading scientists. Many said that work on it was fueled by the belief — promoted by Kremlin officials — that Western countries were producing the same weapons in secret.
Officially, the Kremlin denies the existence of such weapons in Russia. “The Russians have never been transparent about Ministry of Defense facilities,” Mallory Stewart, deputy secretary of the Office of Arms Control of the US Department of State, told WP journalists. “This raises questions about what they are hiding,” he added.
Main photo source: YURI KOCHETKOV/EPA/PAP