Plague outbreak at Russian lab raises questions about bioweapons and what was actually happening in remote Siberia

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.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.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.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.Many of the labs also provided samples to the Soviet army to use in their bioweapons research program, Zilinskas found.The Irkutsk lab has, according to the Kremlin, been used for defensive research and vaccine development.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.It comes years after Moscow peddled a conspiracy theory that Ukraine was running bioweapons laboratories, often with tacit or direct US 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.It was Russian disinformation ops at their best,” the Republican congressman wrote.“But in reality, it is Russia with the biolabs,” he added.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.

“The news of a suspected ‘plague’ outbreak from Russia...