A former Russian Army colonel claimed that military scientists in Russia conducted research on using monkeypox as a bioweapon. Ken Alibek claimed that Moscow was seriously working behind such plans in the early 1990s.
Alibek, who served as deputy chief of biological weapons in the USSR in the 1990s, revealed that the Soviet Union experimented with various multiple infectious diseases to use in warfare.
Russia Operated 40 Bioweapons Facilities
The ex-colonel, who has now moved to the US, stated that at least 40 bioweapon facilities and 32,000 employees used to work under him.
He also revealed that Russia also investigated possibilities to use smallpox as a bioweapon but worldwide vaccine programs ruined its plans.
Ken Alibek Revealed Russia Run a Special Program For Viruses
Alibek, during his 1998 interview with American Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Project (CBWNP), had stated that Russia developed a special program to determine the type of viruses that could be used as bioweapons.
He revealed that Russia tested the vaccinia virus, mousepox virus, rabbitpox virus, and monkeypox virus as models for smallpox. The idea was that all research and development work would be conducted using these model viruses, according to Metro.
Russia's Defence Ministry Ordered to Work on Monkeypox
The ex-colonel went on to say that Russia's Defence Ministry had confirmed to work on monkeypox viruses to create biological weapons for the future following the collapse of the USSR.
Alibek, who participated in a US Congress hearing in 1998, stated that he was sure Russia didn't suspend these biological weapons programs, which a UN weapons inspector confirmed multiple years later.
Multiple UN experts have supported the claims stressing that monkeypox could be engineered as a bioweapon.
However, vaccines for smallpox could be used against the disease but a large number of countries have not stockpiled enough vaccines as the disease was eradicated.
Notably, the first monkeypox cases in the recent outbreak emerged in the UK, which is aggressively active against Russia and has supplied key missiles and other weapons to Ukraine. Moscow has warned the UK about giving arms to Ukraine, threatening London that the consequences could be severe.
