#8
Russia denies origin of anthrax culture causing US
outbreak
Interfax
Moscow, 18 October: Russia's Health Ministry has denied any chance of Russia being the origin of the current anthrax outbreak in the United States.
"It is practically impossible to take such preparations from [a pharmaceutical] enterprise, because all such cultures are subject to very tight control," Yuriy Fedorov, head of the ministry's emergency department, told Interfax.
"Test tubes with such substances are sealed and stored with the greatest of precautions. Special log books are being kept to record the issue of the tubes brought from the storage facilities to the laboratory tables where they are being worked with at the start of the day and their return at the end of the day. The number of Petri dishes used during the work is also registered, so even assuming that any member of staff harbours evil intentions, he will be unable to put it into practice.
"In over 20 years that I have worked at the Health Ministry, there hasn't been a single instance of test tubes with such matter disappearing at the Biopreparat concern or anywhere else.
"Even a highly-skilled specialist cannot make powder with anthrax bacteria outside a laboratory," he added.
"It's impossible to just dig out an animal killed by anthrax, scoop up the contents and take them out of the country. This is an absurd notion because such substances are obtained through a special lengthy processing, something for which both a laboratory and suitable animals are needed."
Fedorov also dismissed a story in the British "Independent" newspaper that blames the US anthrax outbreak on unemployed Russian scientists. Unemployed scientists would not have a laboratory or the money to set one up, he said.
"In case of the scientists who went abroad and started to work there, to do such thing will be against the scientific ethic. It also should be the responsibility of the state that has welcomed them and has offered them such an opportunity, and Russia would have nothing to do with it.
"Actually, I don't know of any cases of purposeful emigration of biologists from Russia except for Kanatjan Alibekov, who indeed worked at Biopreparat until 1992 and now lives in the United States and calls himself Ken Alibek. He is enjoying his heyday there now, but he himself worked on biological weapons at one time. Now he is throwing stones at Russia, which isn't even involved in this."
Fedorov said that there had been instances of "envelopes containing powder" being posted in Russia too, "but fortunately, so far it was just washing powder."
"Such jokers must be found and certainly put on trial because they do not only waste time and money involved in investigating and testing the contents of such envelopes, but might even give a heart attack to an innocent person opening such an envelope," Fedorov said.
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