Introduction, Dr. Jonathan B. Tucker

The Island Summary History of the Soviet Biological weapons program US Involvement news Flash Main

Vozrozhdeniye Island, or "Rebirth Island" in English, is located in the Aral Sea, which divides the Central Asian countries of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. During the Soviet era, the island was an open-air testing site for the Soviet biological weapons program. From 1936 to 1991, field tests carried out on the island involved the release of “weaponized” pathogens: microorganisms specially developed by military scientists to be virulent, hardy, and antibiotic-resistant.

Among the biological warfare agents tested on the island were special strains of Bacillus anthracis (the causative agent of anthrax), Yersinia pestis (plague), and Francisella tularensis (tularemia) that had been rendered resistant to multiple antibiotics and environmental stresses. Some evidence suggests that viral agents, including the smallpox virus, were also tested on the island.

The Red Army's Fifteenth Directorate, which ran the test site, operated a year-round command post in Aralsk, on the Kazakh mainland. All of the key facilities on the island, however, were located south of the Uzbek border. At the barracks and headquarters area, up to 800 scientists and troops were deployed at the peak testing periods from April to August.

One kilometer south was a laboratory complex, including high-containment facilities for work with dangerous pathogens. South of the lab complex was a 240 square mile open-air test range where the biological warfare agents were tested.

The Aral Sea was once the world's fourth largest inland body of water. During the Soviet testing program, deadly germs released experimentally were unable to escape from the island because a large expanse of open water separated it from the mainland. Beginning in the 1960s, however, the Soviet authorities diverted the sea's feeder-rivers into concrete irrigation canals, with the aim of growing large amounts of cotton.

After a few successful harvests, the desert soil became exhausted, the rivers silted over, and desiccation and pesticide contamination turned the area into an environmental wasteland, with serious health consequences for the local populations.

The diversion of the rivers has also caused the Aral Sea to shrink dramatically and ended the former isolation of Vozrozhdeniye Island. A land bridge has now formed from the Uzbek mainland, transforming the island into a peninsula, as shown in this sequence of overhead images (see photo presentation).

In 1988, after the Soviet BW program was supposedly shut down, slurries of anthrax spores and other pathogens were buried on the island. The anthrax spores had been produced at the military microbiology facility in Sverdlovsk and then stockpiled near Irkutsk.

Because the volume of the anthrax material was too large to autoclave, it was shipped to Vozrozhdeniye Island for decontamination and burial. The anthrax spores were mixed with bleach in 250-liter stainless steel containers and then buried in 11 pits within a total area of less than a football field. Because the spores tended to clump together, some were protected from the bleach and remained viable in the soil.

In 1992, Kanatjan Alibekov, a senior Soviet bioweapons scientist, defected to the United States and revealed that weaponized anthrax had been buried on Vozrozhdeniye Island. The U.S. intelligence community was able to determine the locations of the burial sites from historical satellite images taken while the pits were being dug. A Department of Defense team then traveled to the island and took soil samples, which revealed the presence of viable spores of weaponized anthrax.

In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the U.S. government recognized the urgency of decontaminating the anthrax burial sites to eliminate the threat of terrorist access. Moreover, because oil companies are interested in drilling on the island for petroleum and natural gas, these activities could stir up contaminated dust that could blow across to the mainland.

Even so, it would be an exaggeration to call Vozrozhdeniye Island an environmental catastrophe. Because sunlight is an excellent disinfectant, no viable pathogens remain on the surface, only below ground.

Last October, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Uzbek Ministry of Defense signed an agreement allowing the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program to spend up to $6 million to prevent the proliferation of biological weapons materials and technology from Uzbekistan.

Because CTR is prohibited by law from engaging in economic conversion or environmental remediation, the goals of the Vozrozhdeniye project are to destroy the residual live anthrax spores in the burial pits that pose a security threat and to dismantle the BW laboratory complex on the island.

Next month [February 2002], the American side will present a plan and a proposed decontamination technology to the Uzbek Ministry of Defense for its approval, and the actual work will probably get under way in the spring. The current plan is to use a special decontamination solution to soak the anthrax-contaminated soil in situ. The soil will then be dug up and run through the solution again to make sure that all of the spores have been killed. The anthrax pits should be decontaminated by the end of this year, although it will take longer to dismantle the laboratory complex.

This is not the first collaborative effort between the United States and the government of Uzbekistan. CTR has been working in Uzbekistan since 1997 to dismantle the R&D and pilot production equipment at the former Soviet chemical weapons laboratory at Nukus, a project due to be completed this year.

Ambassador Shavkat Khamrakulov

Today, as we are facing the threat of international terrorism all over the world, such an island as Vozrozhdeniye could become a target for global terrorists. They could use what is on that island to "get even" with various parts of the world, and therefore, the island becomes even more important.

Alla Karimova

It is in this regard that I would like to mention the issue of anthrax contamination of postal letters that created a concern for many around the world. The active agent of anthrax is a large bacillus which in the human body forms a capsule. When it is in the natural environment it transforms into a spore, which when boiled, dies immediately. The disinfecting solutions can kill it after a few minutes. But spores can live in the ground for about a hundred years.

The Uzbek Ministry of Health does all that it can in order to prevent the penetration into our territory of this dangerous disease. On our border we have 166 sanitary sites that control the spread of the disease and our Ministry also has an anti-epidemiological staff. Four years ago, we approved regulations that were called the "sanitary rules" in order to protect the territory of our republic from the spread of various dangerous diseases.

In view of the current situation, this regulation was adopted and changed. We have adopted a government program on preventing and reducing the impacts of zoonotic diseases, including tuberculosis, anthrax, and rabies. 50,000 people who are part of the higher risk group are vaccinated against anthrax in Uzbekistan every year. These activities have brought positive results. However, at the same time, tragic events in the United States, anti-terrorist operations in neighboring Afghanistan, and the spread of anthrax in a number of countries are evidence of the fact that part of the world's arsenal of weapons includes chemical and bacteriological weapons, which could end up in terrorist hands.

In this regard, we have adopted additional measures in Uzbekistan. For example, we vaccinate postal workers, administrative, sanitary, and epidemiological staff, as well as customs, railway, and airlines employees against anthrax. We have also increased control over water-treatment facilities and water quality. We are taking measures to prevent the slaughtering of cattle without a preliminary veterinary inspection. We have created groups to assess how ready we are in bacteriological, sanitary, and epidemiological stations and laboratories all over the country. The Ministry of Health has set up a special office in order to strengthen preparedness against infectious diseases and, also, to increase our reserves of drugs, antibiotics, infusion solutions, and other drugs.

The government of Uzbekistan considers it very important to work in the international arena in order to prevent the threat of anthrax disease. In this area, we are very pleased that we have established a legal base for cooperation with the United States, and we are thankful to the United States for their help in the demilitarization of the Nukus facilities. We also hope that the positive experience that we have had in the joint Cooperative Threat Reduction work would also be developed in order to prevent the proliferation of biological weapons in concurrence with the Framework Agreement signed in 2001 between Uzbekistan and the United States. I would also like to mention the implementation agreement on the decontamination of Vozrozhdeniye Island.

Question and Answer

Question: How accessible is the island? Is there a risk of terrorist groups diverting the anthrax spores buried on the island?

Jonathan Tucker: There has been scavenging of metals and other valuable items from the island, but the location of the anthrax burial sites is not generally known. People would have to be lucky if they were able to find the appropriate site from which to take samples. My understanding is that the island is now secured by military troops and that the possibility of terrorists gaining access to it has been removed. I would defer to my Uzbek colleague to confirm that.

Alla Karimova: I think that Dr. Tucker gave a very correct answer to your question. We do not have any information on terrorists coming to Vozrozhdeniye Island. I think what needs to be done is to implement the agreement that was signed in the summer of 2001 between the governments of the United States and Uzbekistan.

Ambassador Shavkat Khamrakulov: Today, the troops of Uzbekistan's Ministry of Defense surround the contaminated area. As Dr. Karimova said, the protection of this area is so strong that it is unlikely that terrorists are going to be able to penetrate it. But, we should not forget that besides terrorists, there are other living beings that could act as the spreading agents of this disease. What I mean is small insects, small animals, and birds that come to the territory. I do not think it matters why one dies, whether you die from the hands of terrorists or because you ate contaminated meat.

Question: Did you vaccinate people at risk against anthrax prior to September 11?

Alla Karimova: No. However, after September 11 we increased the numbers of people who are considered to be in the higher risk category. Before we had the information on anthrax powder delivered in envelopes, people who worked in the mail facilities, administrative workers, railroad workers, and people who deal with transportation were not included in the higher risk group. Now they are. We used measures that were developed in the United States, and we also received help from the U.S. that allowed us to prevent potentially life-threatening situations.

Terence Taylor, IISS: Perhaps it would be useful for British experts who decontaminated anthrax spores on Guinard Island off the coast of Scotland to share their experiences. (The British used the island to test anthrax bombs during World War II.)

Jonathan Tucker: I think that this is a very interesting observation. There are probably some useful lessons learned from the Guinard Island experience that could be applied to Vozrozhdeniye. Of course the technology of decontamination has improved in the intervening years. There is another dimension that we have not discussed, the possibility of some type of animal reservoir on the island for plague. We know that plague, unlike many other agents, does infect animals, particularly rodents. There was testing of plague on the island, but it is unknown whether or not there may be a reservoir of infected rodents on the island. The Uzbek government has expressed some interest in doing surveys of the fauna on the island to assess this possibility. I wondered if our Uzbek colleagues could comment on proposals by both Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to do surveys of the island to determine if there is a lingering contamination threat from plague, as well as anthrax.

Alla Karimova: Dr. Taylor, thank you very much for the important remark. I would like to say that any additional information in this area is very useful. I will make sure to tell our experts who work in this area that they can contact you for any additional or missing information. I would also like to say that the intergovernmental agreement that was signed has many facets to it, and we are planning to sign more implementation agreements. For example, there are plans for an agreement that would involve the Ministry of Health, our scientists, academic experts and the political and technical aspects of cooperation on Vozrozhdeniye Island. This is very important to us.

Question: Did Uzbek nationals participate in the BW testing on Vozrozhdeniye Island during the Soviet time?

Alla Karimova: I would like to tell you that there are no Uzbek citizens who worked on Vozrozhdeniye Island. We only learned about what was going on there from the press. The Soviet Union did not tell us anything, and the Uzbek government has no documents on what went on there. Our first activity, after we learned about it, was to look for Uzbek citizens who were involved in this program. I want to tell you first that I am happy that none of our citizens were involved in it, but on the other hand, it makes our information-gathering more difficult.

Question: Will Russia be involved in the decontamination of Vozrozhdeniye Island?

Alla Karimova: I think you are right in raising this issue. However, something that we have to take into account is the issue of passing on the information. The Soviet government and the Russian government are two completely different things. Since the Russian government also participates in the Nunn-Lugar program, I think that they are facing much of the same challenges that we are facing with Vozrozhdeniye Island. Based on the literature that I am reading, I know that Russia has even more problems than we do, and I respect them for being so involved and committed to wanting to solve these problems. Yet I think that we made the right choice in choosing the United States as our partner. I think that we will be successful in eliminating the threat from Uzbekistan.

Rose Gottemoeller, Carnegie Endowment: I was wondering about your relationship with Kazakhstan. Obviously Kazakhstan owns part of the island as well. What is that working relationship like?

Alla Karimova: I want to say that we have a very good relationship with Kazakhstan on a whole range of issues. Our scientists, especially those who are involved in this area and those who work in the health, sanitary, and epidemiological fields work together. They have joint conferences, joint projects that are aimed at reducing the threat, and all the appropriate agencies in both governments work together.

Question: What is the total agreed cost between Uzbekistan and the U.S. to decontaminate the Island?

Jonathan Tucker: My understanding is that six million dollars has been allocated, both for the decontamination project and for the dismantlement of the biological weapons complex. I think that there is still some discussion over the decontamination technology to be used. But that decision will be made shortly and then presented to the Uzbek government for their approval.

Alla Karimova: The allocated amount of money has been determined and I would like to again refer back to the implementation agreement, which specifies the amount of money, who is going to do the work and how the work is going to be done on Vozrozhdeniye Island. As far as scientific debates are concerned, it would be strange if they were no scientific debates, it would not be interesting.

Ambassador Shavkat Khamrakulov: I would like to say that we have the implementation agreement, and as Dr. Tucker mentioned, six million dollars has been allocated. Uzbekistan has very limited funds. As you probably guessed, the six million dollars was provided by the United States. Over the course of our negotiations, which lasted for a year and a half, we came to the conclusion that six million dollars may not be sufficient because we do not really understand the scope of the threat that is presented there. But it is certainly enough to start the work. Another aspect that has to do with Vozrozhdeniye Island is environmental. Based on the slides that Dr. Tucker presented to us, we all understand that the inevitable consequence of what is happening there is that the Aral Sea will disappear from the map. I am afraid that Vozrozhdeniye Island will first become a peninsula, and then it will turn into a part of the sediment, part of the bottom of the Aral Sea. You may remember that 10 or 12 years ago there was an article that talked about salts and dust from Vozrozhdeniye Island that have fallen into countries such as Turkey, Romania, and even countries that are further away. One can only imagine the environmental threat for countries that are surrounding the Aral Sea. Although Uzbekistan and the United States are working on solving the Vozrozhdeniye Island issue, it is not just a bilateral issue, rather, it is an issue that concerns many other countries. I would like to one more time thank Dr. Tucker and Ms. Gottemoeller for holding this meeting, and I would also like to thank everyone who came.

Rose Gottemoeller: Thank you very much, Mr. Ambassador. Having escaped now from government service and no longer being constrained in my former Department of Energy role from being concerned about environmental problems, I would like to say that I agree with you that the problems of environmental contamination of the whole region are considerable. I hope that there will be many international efforts to work on this problem.

Vozrozhdeniye Island

In addition, the insular location prevented the transmission of pathogens to neighboring mainland areas by animals or insects. The northern part of Vozrozhdeniye Island, which Kazakhs call Mergensay, is on Kazakhstani territory. The southern two-thirds of the island is in the Karakalpak autonomous region of Uzbekistan.

In 1936, Vozrozhdeniye Island was transferred to the authority of the Soviet MOD for use by the Red Army's Scientific Medical Institute. The first expedition of 100 people, headed by Professor Ivan Velikanov, arrived on the island that summer. The researchers were provided with special ships and two airplanes and reportedly conducted experiments involving the spread of tularemia and related microorganisms. In the fall of 1937, however, the expedition was evacuated from the island because of security problems, including the arrest of Velikanov and other specialists. In 1952, the Soviet government decided to resume Biological Weapons testing on islands in the Aral Sea.

A biological weapons test site, officially referred to as "Aralsk-7," was built in 1954 on Vozrozhdeniye and Komsomolskiy Islands. The MOD's Field Scientific Research Laboratory (PNIL) was stationed on Vozrozhdeniye Island to conduct the experiments. Military unit 25484, comprising several hundred people, was also based on the island and reported to a larger unit based in Aralsk.(32) The PNIL developed methods of biological defense and decontamination for Soviet troops. Samples of military hardware, equipment, and protective clothing reportedly passed field tests at the island before being mass-produced. During the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, military protective gear developed for Afghan conditions was tested at the PNIL.

Infrastructure and Biological Weapons Development

The Biological Weapons test site on Vozrozhdeniye Island was divided into a testing complex in the southern part of the island and a military settlement in the northern part where officers, some with families, and soldiers lived. The settlement had barracks, residential houses, an elementary school, a nursery school, a cafeteria, warehouses, and a power station. Personnel were subjected to regular immunizations and received hardship benefits. PNIL laboratory buildings, located near the residential area, possessed up-to-date equipment and a Biosafety Level 3 containment unit. Also located in the northern part of the island was Barkhan Airport, which provided regular plane and helicopter transportation to the mainland, and a seaport at Udobnaya Bay. Special fast patrol boats protected the island from intruders.

The open-air test site in the southern part of the island was used for studying the dissemination patterns of Biological Weapons agent aerosols and methods to detect them, and the effective range of aerosol bomblets with biological agents of different types. The testing grounds were equipped with an array of telephone poles with detectors mounted on them, spaced at one-kilometer intervals.

Biological Weapons agents tested at the Vozrozhdeniye site had been developed at the MOD facilities in Kirov, Sverdlovsk, and Zagorsk, and the Biopreparat center in Stepnogorsk, and included anthrax, tularemia, brucellosis, plague, typhus, Q fever, smallpox, botulinum toxin, and Venezuelan equine encephalitis. The experiments were conducted on horses, monkeys, sheep, and donkeys, and on laboratory animals such as white mice, guinea pigs, and hamsters. In addition to common pathogenic strains, special strains developed for military purposes were tested at the island. Bacterial simulants were also used to study the dissemination of aerosol particles in the atmosphere. The fact that the island's prevailing winds always blow toward the south, away from the northern settlement, was probably an important factor in designing the site. The Biological Weapons aerosol tests were also conducted in such a way as to avoid contaminating the northern military settlement, and a special service on the island was responsible for environmental control. Nevertheless, the activities on the secret island caused serious concerns among local residents because of repeated epidemics and the mass deaths of animals and fish in the area. Individual cases of infectious disease also occurred in people who spent time on the island.

Desiccation of the Aral Sea

The Moscow authorities did not allow Kazakhstani public representatives to visit Vozrozhdeniye Island until 1990. The first Kazakhstani commission, headed by N. I. Ibrayev, Deputy Chairman of the Kzylorda Oblast Executive Committee of the CPSU, visited the island in August 1990. The visit was hosted by Valeriy Sinevich, the commander of the military unit stationed on the island, and Victor Donchenko, deputy head of the PNIL. In the spring of 1992, a second Kazakhstani government commission heded by Svyatoslav Medvedev, Minister of Ecology and Bioresources, visited the island. In August 1992, an independent expert commission of the Aral-Asia-Kazakhstan non-governmental organization also visited. The Russian military authorities claimed that no offensive testing or research had been conducted on the island and that the site had tested only defenses against biological weapons.

Evacuation of Russian military personnel from Vozrozhdeniye Island began in 1991, when the PNIL specialists left and the laboratories were mothballed. On January 18, 1992, the Supreme Soviet of newly independent Kazakhstan issued the edict "On Urgent Measures for Radically Improving the Living Conditions of Aral Area Residents," which officially closed the Vozrozhdeniye military site. On April 11, 1992, Russian President Boris Yeltsin's Edict No. 390, "On Ensuring the Implementation of International Obligations Regarding Biological Weapons," ordered that all offensive Biological Weapons programs be shut down. Following this decree, the Russian government declared that the Vozrozhdeniye site was closed, the special structures would be dismantled, and within two to three years the island would be decontaminated and transferred to Kazakhstani control.

In August 1995, specialists from the US Department of Defense visited Vozrozhdeniye Island and confirmed that the experimental field lab had been dismantled, the site's infrastructure destroyed, and the military settlement abandoned.

The Aral Sea and Vozrozhdeniye Island

 

Aerial photo of the Aral Sea (1985)

Satellite image of Voz Island (1970)

 

1977

1995

November 1999

November 2000

December 2001

 

Agricultural opportunities crippled by environmental conditions
Former coastal fishing village and marooned fishing vessels in Kyzylorda Oblast, Kazakhstan

 

Boys drawing untreated water in Khiva

Amu Darya, 200 km above its mouth at the Aral Sea