Former Soviet States to Coordinate Anti-WMD Efforts

Russia and five other former Soviet states have agreed to coordinate their security efforts against a nuclear, chemical or biological attack, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 25).

Defense ministers from Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan came to the agreement during a meeting of Collective Security Treaty members (Maria Danilova, Associated Press, Nov. 30).

Advancements in biological sciences are both a boon and a potential danger, Russian Duma deputy Andrey Kokoshin said yesterday during an international security seminar in Moscow.

“Problems of national security in the biological sphere have at least three main dimensions,” said Kokoshin, former Russian Security Council secretary. “First, there is a threat of the use of biological weapons by terrorists; second, there is the accidental manufacture in the course of genetic engineering work of bacteria and viruses that are dangerous to human life and health; and, third, the treat of pandemic diseases remains” (Interfax-AVN, Nov. 30).

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