The Institute of Applied Biochemistry is a research laboratory and bioweapons production facility located in Omutninsk,

Kirov Oblast Kirov Oblast ( rus, Кировская область, p=ˈkʲirəfskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) located in Eastern Europe. Its administrative center is the city of Kirov. As of the 2010 census, the population ...

. For a time in the 1980s, the facility was directed by

Ken Alibek Kanatzhan "Kanat" Baizakovich Alibekov (born 1950), known as Kenneth "Ken" Alibek since 1992, is a Kazakh-American microbiologist, bioweaponeer, and biological warfare administrative management expert. He was the first deputy director of Biop ...

. Wild rodents like rats that live in the woods outside the factory are chronically infected with the "Schu-4 military strain" of

tularemia Tularemia, also known as rabbit fever, is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium '' Francisella tularensis''. Symptoms may include fever, skin ulcers, and enlarged lymph nodes. Occasionally, a form that results in pneumonia or a throat ...

due to a "small leak" in a basement pipe found in the twilight years of the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

to be dripping a viral suspension into the ground.

References

Biological hazards Laboratories in Russia Research institutes in Russia Biological warfare Medical research institutes in the Soviet Union Soviet biological weapons program Pharmaceutical companies of Russia Pharmaceutical companies of the Soviet Union {{Russia-struct-stub