Pneumonia cases in Shelekhov, Siberia, have revived memories of the 1979 Sverdlovsk anthrax outbreak, when Soviet authorities concealed the suspected laboratory connection. Almost five decades later, questions remain over the information coming from Russia.
The laboratory and the secret biological weapons programme
On March 30, 1979, a technician at the Soviet military complex known as Facility 19 in Sverdlovsk left a handwritten note for his supervisor. It reportedly warned that a filter had become clogged, had been removed and needed replacing.
The note was apparently not acted upon.
Within days, workers at a nearby ceramics factory began falling ill. The outbreak was eventually linked to anthrax spores released from the military facility, although Soviet authorities initially denied any connection with the laboratory.
The official death toll was 66. Ken Alibek, a senior figure in the Soviet biological weapons programme who later defected to the United States, put the number at more than 100, while other estimates have been considerably higher.
The incident became one of the clearest examples of the secrecy surrounding the Soviet Union’s biological weapons programme, known as Biopreparat.
The Soviet Union had signed the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, which prohibited the development and stockpiling of biological weapons. Despite this, Western governments and intelligence agencies concluded that the Soviet programme continued on a large scale.
For years, Moscow maintained that the Sverdlovsk deaths were caused by contaminated meat. The Soviet news agency Tass promoted the theory of a natural outbreak, while reports at the time also described efforts to remove potentially contaminated meat and control stray animals.
The explanation remained in place for years.
A new case in Siberia
Nearly five decades later, another unexplained death at a facility dealing with dangerous pathogens has revived memories of Sverdlovsk.
Darya Shipilova, a researcher at an anti-plague institute near Irkutsk, died after developing severe pneumonia. Russian authorities have not publicly established the precise cause of her death and have rejected suggestions that the laboratory was responsible.
The authorities have also denied reports of a second case linked to the facility.
The World Health Organization has requested additional information from Moscow, while European and US officials have also sought clarification.
The European Union’s Health Security Committee has described the information available from Russia as limited.
The similarities with the Soviet-era episode should not be overstated. There is currently no confirmed evidence that Shipilova’s death was caused by plague, anthrax or another biological agent released from a laboratory.
But the lack of publicly available information has inevitably raised questions because of Russia’s history of secrecy surrounding biological research.
A telephone call with Putin
The political response has also added another dimension to the case.
When the United States offered assistance, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded that Russia could instead help the US deal with epidemics inside the country.
Washington subsequently sought further information from Moscow.
US President Donald Trump has said that he does not believe the plague outbreak is connected to a biological weapon, while indicating that the United States would seek to establish what happened.
Trump also said he planned to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the issue.
The situation is different from 1979 in one important respect: international health authorities can now demand information much more quickly.
The International Health Regulations require countries to notify the WHO of events that could constitute a public health emergency of international concern.
In practice, however, international organisations cannot independently enter a country’s laboratories without the cooperation of the authorities concerned.
The unanswered questions
The Sverdlovsk outbreak remained officially unexplained for years.
Western experts eventually concluded that the pattern of infections was consistent with an airborne release of anthrax spores from the military facility. It was not until 1992 that then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin acknowledged that the deaths had been linked to the military laboratory.
Yeltsin had been the Communist Party leader in Sverdlovsk at the time of the outbreak.
The Soviet biological weapons programme was subsequently declared dismantled, although questions about its legacy and the extent to which its activities continued after the Soviet collapse have persisted.
The current Siberian case does not establish a connection with that history.
For now, what is known is that a researcher working at a facility dealing with dangerous pathogens died after developing pneumonia, while Russian authorities have provided limited public information about the circumstances.
The WHO and Western governments are seeking clarification, and the US president has said he does not currently believe the case involves a biological weapon.
The key questions remain what caused Shipilova’s illness, what tests were carried out and whether the results can be independently assessed.
Until those questions are answered, the case is likely to remain under scrutiny — not because a biological weapons incident has been established, but because Russia’s history has made transparency over such incidents particularly important.
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