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Russian General Describes Plan for Military, Civilian Bioterrorism Countermeasures
The Russian military is implementing several bioterrorism countermeasures in conjunction with the work of several ministries and government departments, according to a newspaper interview published Saturday with the chief of the Russian Federation’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops (see GSN, April 26). The threat of a bioterror attack cannot be dismissed, Lt. Gen. Vladimir Filippov told the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper. Crews trained to detect and mitigate the effects of such an attack must be prepared to take correct actions “as swiftly as possible to prevent people being contaminated,” he said. “A Unified System for the Detection and Evaluation of a Radiation, Chemical or Biological Situation is functioning in the Russian Federation armed forces and is constantly being upgraded,” Filippov said. “This facilitates the timely notification of the appropriate agencies regarding a given type of contamination so that they can take soundly based decisions on eliminating the consequences of contamination.” Russia has also established the Center for Special Laboratory Diagnostics and the Treatment of Particularly Dangerous Infectious Diseases “to facilitate more effective countering of terrorist acts of this nature,” he said. Filippov also said he expect his Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops to be provided with new equipment by the end of next year. “A set of fundamentally new chemical reconnaissance instruments intended for installation aboard specialized reconnaissance vehicles will be added to the inventory in the not too distant future,” he said. “The adoption for supply of a remote radiation, chemical and biological reconnaissance complex enabling personnel to avoid contact with a contaminated environment will also be an important step in renewing the troops’ instrument pool.” The troops are expected to receive new protective gear and access to a “polyfunctional foaming agent” that neutralizes toxic agents and renders the equipment invisible to radar and infrared emission bands, according to Filippov. The unit should also obtain 15 new ARS-14K chemical spray trucks for treatment of roads and terrain sectors, as well as personnel decontamination procedures. Russian scientists, meanwhile, have created some 50 new prophylactic drugs, including an Ebola inoculation, according to Filippov (Krasnaya Zvezda/BBC Monitoring, Nov. 17).
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