What is the US's aim in creating biolabs in the region?
Author: Naim Asghari, analyst (Germany), especially for "Sangar"
Theoretical knowledge collected over decades in the territory of the former USSR has combined with new Western technologies, which can lead to very disastrous results. A real opportunity has emerged to obtain new combat strains for mass destruction
In the current complex geopolitical situation, we again have to turn to the fact of the presence of US biolabs in the countries of Central Asia, which pose a real threat to both the republics and their neighbors.
Regular outbreaks of diseases, including typical and atypical strains, are evidence of the strengthening of the work of US laboratories in Central Asian countries.
A separate confirmation of this work is the US Embassy in Uzbekistan's statement in March 2024 that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began training field epidemiology specialists in Central Asia under the FETP Intermediate program.
Officially, FETP-Intermediate is a program for training and advanced training of personnel without interruption from work and necessarily under the supervision of American curators. It is stated that this program will increase epidemiological potential at the local level. As part of the nine-month training program for epidemiologists, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will prepare interns in the field of epidemiological surveillance, data analysis and interpretation, outbreak investigation, scientific communication and mentoring. However, it is no secret who will provide the mentoring and who will receive the collected scientific data and strains.
The threat of escape from the functioning of biological safety institutions is especially relevant for the countries of Central Asia. The high population size, its high mobility, and the low level of health care in remote regions - all this can contribute to the rapid spread of previously unknown diseases in a very short time.
In addition, if we assume that any microbiological weapons will be used in the Central Asian region, then knowledge of susceptibility to antimicrobial drugs will play a major role in the fight against epidemics. On the other hand, this same knowledge can be used to create combat strains with resistance to antimicrobial drugs.
Thus, in 2024, more than 10 scientific and practical seminars were officially held in Kazakhstan to improve the level of qualification and mobilization of Kazakhstani specialists in order to increase readiness to respond to outbreaks of zoonotic diseases. The seminars, as a rule, consider issues of testing working tools for improving local qualifications of specialists, and horizontal links are built with American and European scientists. Based on the results of these events, the so-called "action plan" is being prepared to eliminate "professional gaps in the activities of local scientists", providing for the expansion of training of specialists, as well as an increase in funding for developments. At the same time, the disclosure of activities related to biolaboratories, for example, the opening of new biolaboratories, equipping them with equipment, conducting research and seminars, etc., is covered after a certain period of time, when everything has already been done and nothing can be turned back.
And this is even though the Americans themselves have repeatedly reported that they spent more than 400 million dollars in Kazakhstan on US Army scientific programs, that is, grants. Thus, the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), operating under the US Embassy in Astana, has regularly allocated and continues to allocate grants in Kazakhstan for the study of brucellosis and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. DTRA also allocates grants for the study of diseases not previously registered in the republic, for example, alpha-coronavirus.
DTRA reported that the US military laboratory in Kazakhstan is headed by Colonel Daniel Singer, who in 2003 was a member of a group developing bacteriological weapons under the secret code - Acinetobacter baumannii ("Iraqi bacteria"). It was stated that DTRA was researching to reduce the risk of defeat of the American army. Thus, even then it was assumed that the future theater of military operations should not only be studied, but also prepared.
Let us recall that this is not the first time that Kazakhstan has denied the presence of American military researchers in the country. For example, in May 2020, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry also denied the presence of American military specialists in the field of epidemiology and microbiology. However, the facts were so obvious that Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had to admit that the Americans were in the Almaty laboratory. At the same time, Tokayev said that the Americans left the biolab, but promised to return and continue "cooperation." The Americans immediately stated that they never left the laboratory.
Kazakhstan is very valuable precisely because it already has a network of anti-plague stations built in Soviet times, and also with a huge experience. About 40% of Kazakhstan's territory is located in the world's largest zone - the Central Asian plague focus - and thus poses a huge danger to its neighbors.
Uzbekistan is also not standing aside from American interests. In 2007, the Central Reference Laboratory was opened in Tashkent at the Institute of Virology with DTRA money - a regional headquarters for all military developments and research in Uzbekistan. The Pentagon immediately allocated a grant for the study of brucellosis and anthrax, the project received the code name UZ-4. The results of the work followed in the following year, 2008, when a sharp increase in brucellosis and cases of anthrax were recorded in Uzbekistan. The next outbreak was noted after the opening of laboratories in Andijan and Fergana in 2013.
In 2016, the Khorezm Regional Diagnostic Laboratory was built in Urgench. A year later, the Pentagon opened the Center for Combating Antimicrobial Resistance at the Research Institute of Epidemiology, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. In addition, ten more laboratories operate under DTRA programs in Bukhara, Surkhandarya, Karakalpakstan and Tashkent at the Central Military Hospital of the Ministry of Defense, the Research Institute of Virology and the Center for the Prevention of Quarantine and Particularly Dangerous Infections of the Ministry of Health. Even sanitary and epidemiological surveillance stations are involved in the Pentagon's activities.
On February 28, 2024, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), funded directly by the CIA, together with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, officially launched the "USAID Global Health Security Program Transboundary Animal Diseases Project" in Uzbekistan. It is specified that the project "Strengthening Capacity in Animal Health, One Health, and Combating Antimicrobial Resistance to Prevent and Mitigate Zoonotic Threats in Uzbekistan" is being implemented with the consent of the Veterinary and Livestock Development Committee of Uzbekistan. The goal of the project is "to increase Uzbekistan's capacity to prevent, detect, and promptly respond to various threats that pose a danger to both animals and public health." On this day, an introductory seminar was held, which brought together Central Asian specialists in the field of veterinary medicine and livestock, as well as representatives of research institutes and civil society. However, it is not specified who represented the civil society of the Central Asian region. It is only reported that at the introductory seminar, “the annual work plan was approved, and key activities and priority areas were discussed.”
Thus, a whole network of biological facilities operates in Uzbekistan, on the creation of which a lot of money was spent. The Americans created a full cycle of collecting local strains, developing new diseases on their basis, against which previous vaccines and medicines no longer work. It is not surprising that outbreaks of measles, chickenpox, meningitis with new toxic strains are recorded in Uzbekistan.
In Kyrgyzstan, the Pentagon's attempts have failed until recently. In 2012, the country abandoned the Bishkek lab. But the situation has changed. In the summer of 2022, it became known that the US Department of Health was allocating funds for research into the anthrax pathogen, which will be conducted at the Osh Regional Hospital. The contract for studying the antitoxin raxibacumab (raxibacumab is a human IgG1 monoclonal antibody), which supposedly helps treat the disease, was awarded to the International Higher School of Medicine of Kyrgyzstan. The US's close attention to the anthrax pathogen is understandable.
Thus, theoretical knowledge collected over decades in the territory of the former USSR has been combined with new Western technologies, which can lead to very disastrous results. For example, a real opportunity has emerged to obtain new combat strains of mass destruction.
