BIOLOGICAL AGENT SUSPECTED IN SICKNESS AT SOVIET CITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00788R000300020002-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 10, 1998
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: March 19, 1980
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2000/08/07 :CIA-RDP96-007888000300020002-6
.~~~~gical Agent suspected
.,~~t icuness at a ~ov~,~t ~t
~~ d " " P ~- "`has. He would not identify the biologi-
tIaY that an ou~~rea~s o~ disease m a ~ t su osedl involved or say
en
~,. }
-_:_
~~'he S to ~e `artme -said rester- ` a o`ut t e ` ebic~erice"tie iTepartmerit
i>ussed with, the. Soviets in Geneva,
.~~,?tTt;re a' review confeence on" the 5-
" year-olc~ treaty banning biological
warfare agents is under way.
pics in 1Vroscow. `? "~R' 13 in Bildzeitung of Hamburg. It said
l~epartment~spo~esman D_ a'v'id 1'as? "that more- than 1,060 people had died
~.., ,
eggs sairi t"he evidence was being dis- after an explosion spewed deadly bac-
d~~ o~~ Soviet citizens died near
5vgr ovs'~a mft~e Y7ra1 1~Iouritains, in
Apr 1!#~?
"~o~ar~ment 'o~ficiaTS denied `that
the tim n of the statement was in-
ters ed `~o" persuade otTier nations not
to l3artic~pate in the' Summer `Olym-
n7~~~ ~iascomme'ed on reports in
tide 'C~estern `~uropeari press that hun-
Soviet city 'last ,year Y3may have `re= V
st~~tg~~ from "fie exiwsur~ of large
ntlt~tbers of people to some sort of le-
thal Tiiolo~ical agent fs
!xt yv~s tie #irst'~ime that the"tTepart=
c ag
pp y
whether the department was certain
that deaths occurred.
Other officials, speaking privately,
pointed out that Sverdlovsk is a city
closed. t4 Americans. They. said the
United States. has no firsthand, clini-. ~~
cal evidence.. "But__there is enough
smoke to make us curious about
whether there is a;fire=" one official
said. . , ,.,~,
The Sovie'~s `have corisis~entiy de-
nied the reports of accidents involving
biological weapons. - -
newspaper said that another incident
also occurred in 1979 near Novosi
busk.
Approved For Release 2000/08/07 :CIA-RDP96-007888000300020002-6