A possible plague outbreak at a Russian lab is raising questions about what was actually happening inside the lab in remote Siberia — especially in light of Russia’s known bioweapons program.
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what → raise → program
The Anti-Plague Research Institute in Irkutsk, 2,500 miles east of Moscow near the Mongolian border, is one of 80-some infectious disease labs built by the Soviet Union to study pathogens.
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Institute → build → pathogens
On paper, the labs were purely for defense and public health, but the plague labs were closely linked to the USSR’s offensive biological weapons program, according to research by Raymond A. Zilinskas.
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labs → link → Zilinskas
The Irkutsk lab under the Soviets functioned as a critical repository for wild, highly virulent strains of plague, anthrax, and other pathogens isolated from animals across East Asia and Siberia.
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lab → function → Asia
Many of the labs also provided samples to the Soviet army to use in their bioweapons research program, Zilinskas found.
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Zilinskas → provide → program
The Irkutsk lab has, according to the Kremlin, been used for defensive research and vaccine development.
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lab → accord → research
However, an April 2025 US State Department report found that “Russia maintains an offensive biological warfare program and is in violation of its obligations” under the Biological Weapons Convention, Radio Free Europe reported.
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Europe → find → Convention
It comes years after Moscow peddled a conspiracy theory that Ukraine was running bioweapons laboratories, often with tacit or direct US support.
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Ukraine → come → support
Rep. Don Bacon (Neb.-2), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, addressed the longstanding allegations in an X post on Sunday.
“I remember hearing from anti-Ukraine voices about their so-called bio labs.
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I → address → labs
It was Russian disinformation ops at their best,” the Republican congressman wrote.
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congressman → write → best
“But in reality, it is Russia with the biolabs,” he added.
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he → add → biolabs
Former CIA Director Mike Pompeo similarly sounded the alarm on Monday — and drew a straight line to the COVID-19 outbreak seven years ago, which occurred 1,500 miles south in Wuhan, China.
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which → sound → Wuhan
“The news of a suspected ‘plague’ outbreak from Russia should be treated with the utmost seriousness, especially considering the source,” he wrote in X.
“COVID showed us how the lies and obstruction of authoritarian governments seeking to cover their tracks can turn a containable outbreak into a global pandemic.
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lies → suspect → pandemic
Russia has consistently denied that it is producing biological weapons at its disease labs, saying that such facilities are aimed at developing defenses against deadly pathogens and plagues.
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facilities → deny → pathogens
So far, almost 200 people who came into contact with lab technician Shipilova are under quarantine, and up to five local hospitals are feared to have been placed on lockdown.
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hospitals → come → lockdown
No further positive cases of pneumonic plague have been reported as of Monday.
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cases → report → Monday
During the Soviet Union, research stations like Irkutsk collected thousands of wild pathogen strains from various ecological regions, and experts trained at the anti-plague institutes were frequently recruited into bioweapons programs, according to Zilinskas’ research.
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experts → collect → research
When the USSR collapsed in 1991, many of the anti-plague labs scattered across the former empire fell into dangerous disrepair due to funding shortages, and for the next two decades, American-backed initiatives worked with the ex-Soviet states to secure their pathogen collections and upgrade lab biosafety.
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initiatives → collapse → biosafety
The plague is commonly spread by fleas — but contact with infected wild animals is the most common way the disease is transmitted to humans in the 21st century.
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disease → spread → century
Pneumonic plague, which is reportedly the variant in Siberia, can also spread person-to-person by particles in coughs from infected people or contact with bodily fluids.
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which → spread → fluids
The plague was the source of the Black Death in the 14th century, which killed up to 60% of the entire population of Europe.
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which → kill → Europe
The Aporia
