The Stepnogorsk Scientific and Technical Institute
for Microbiology, also known as the Scientific
Experimental and Production Base, was one
of the premier biological warfare facilities
operated by the Soviet Union.
It was the only Biopreparat facility to be
built outside of Russia proper, and one of
the few ever visited officially by Western
experts.
Currently, the site conducts civilian biological
research, overseen by director Vladimir Bugreyev.
The United States Department of State and
the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation
now provide significant funds supporting civilian
research at Stepnogorsk.
== History ==
The facility was built in 1982, ten kilometers
from Stepnogorsk, Kazakhstan, in the wake
of the accident at Sverdlovsk.
It was built to develop and produce large
quantities of weaponized anthrax, almost 300
tons annually, in order to fill the production
gap caused by a potential shutdown of their
Sverdlovsk facility.
Soviet leadership placed Colonel Kanatjan
Alibekov (a.k.a. Ken Alibek) in charge of
the base until his transfer to Moscow in 1987.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union
in 1991, the Stepnogorsk base fell under the
purview of the nascent Kazakh government,
who, having little interest in weapons of
mass destruction, let the secret city fall
into disrepair.Kazakh President Nursultan
Nazarbayev personally granted a team of American
experts, led by U.S. Department of Defense
diplomat Andy Weber, permission to visit the
still-operational site in 1995, the first
time an American intelligence team had ever
been allowed to do so
