The Institute of Applied Biochemistry is a research laboratory and bioweapons production facility located in

Omutninsk Omutninsk (russian: Омутни́нск) is a town and the administrative center of Omutninsky District in Kirov Oblast, Russia. Population: History It was first mentioned in 1773; town status was granted to it in 1921. Administrative and mun ...

Kirov Oblast Kirov Oblast (russian: Ки́ровская о́бласть, ''Kirovskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) in Eastern Europe. Its administrative center is the city of Kirov. Population: 1,341,312 ( 2010 Census). Geography Na ...

History

For a time in the 1980s, the facility was directed by

Ken Alibek Kanatzhan "Kanat" Alibekov ( kk, Қанатжан Байзақұлы Әлібеков, Qanatjan Baizaqūly Älıbekov; russian: Канатжан Алибеков, Kanatzhan Alibekov; born 1950), known as Kenneth "Ken" Alibek since 1992, is a Kazak ...

Discoveries

Wild rodents like rats that live in the woods outside the factory are chronically infected with the "Schu-4 military strain" of

tularemia Tularemia, also known as rabbit fever, is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium ''Francisella tularensis''. Symptoms may include fever, skin ulcers, and enlarged lymph nodes. Occasionally, a form that results in pneumonia or a throat infe ...

due to a "small leak" in a basement pipe found in the twilight years of the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

to be dripping a viral suspension into the ground.

References

Biological hazards Laboratories in Russia Research institutes in Russia Biological warfare Medical research institutes in the Soviet Union Soviet biological weapons program Pharmaceutical companies of Russia Pharmaceutical companies of the Soviet Union {{Russia-struct-stub