DAILY SNAP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00792R000600120002-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 26, 2000
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: May 21, 1992
• Content Type: OPEN

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DaiIy SNAP
FOREIGN AEROSPACE
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER
Author: Umnov, V.
Title: GENETIC-ENGINEERING PROJECT FOR
OBTAINING BACTERIOLOGICAL WEAPONS RECALLED
Primary Source: Komsomols aya pravda,
April 30, 1992, No. 80 (20380), p. 1, cols.
2-8
Abstract: The article reports on results
of an investigation of secret bacteriologi-
cal-warfare research in the former USSR.
The author relates that this inves-
tigation was begun in response to letters
from Komsomolskaya pravda readers concern-
ing a bacteriological test facility on Voz-
rozhdeniye Island in the Aral Sea.* It was
alleged in particular that experiments on
animals had been conducted here without
proper immunization of personnel, in facil-
ities which were closed to the public.
Military authorities refused to answer re-
quests for information in this connection
or to allow journalists to visit the test
facility. Such information as is available
indicates that the Aral Sea facility has
now been practically deactivated.
It is recalled that institutes engaged
in bacteriological-weapons research ap-
peared in the Ministry of Defense at a com-
paratively early date. During the 1970s, a
special system was created with a view to
catching up with the West in genetic-engi-
neering research aimed at obtaining altered
forms of bacteria and viruses. This system
remained in operation despite Soviet rati-
fication, in 1975, of an international con-
vention banning bacteriological weapons.
Projects which were essentially military
began under the auspices of the USSR Coun-
cil of Ministers' Main Administration for
the Microbiology Industry. A bacteriology
center was opened in the Moscow suburb of
Obolensk, and a virology center was created
in Koltsovo, near Novosibirsk. A biologi-
cal-instrument building institute and an
institute for designing machinery for bio-
chemistry were created in Moscow, and an
institute for extra-pure preparations ap-
peared in Leningrad. Experimental in-
dustrial facilities were opened. Whole
schools were respecialized at the Moscow
Higher Technical School imeni Bauman, Mos-
cow State University, Medical Institute No.
2 and other higher schools in Moscow. Spe-
cialists sought by genetic-engineering
methods to obtain new microorganisms with
prescribed properties, for specific cli-
ents. This was not accomplished because
scientists involved in military projects
lacked sufficient knowledge of the nature
of these properties. On the other hand,
directions of research which were pursued
on the side could now become main direc-
tions in virology, vaccination'and diagno-
sis, it is claimed. A method of obtaining
interferon was learned at the center in
Koltsovo, for example.
Specialists reportedly have the task
of utilizing potential in the field of mi-
crobiology which has been developed as a
result of defense research. The author
mentions in conclusion that a Committee on
Conventional Problems of Chemical and Bio-
logical Weapons was created under the Pres-
ident of Russia in February.
*See also the Daily SNAP, May 6, 1992, p.
3, col. 1
(SNAP 920521)
Title: RUSSIAN LAW ON CONVERSION STIPU-
LATES LIMITATIONS ON TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
Primary Source: Ekonomika i zhizn, May
1992, No. 18 (8399), p. 20, cols. 1-5
Abstract: The texts of a law of the Rus-
sian Federation "On Conversion of Defense
Industry in the Russian Federation" and of
a resolution of the Russian Federation Su-
preme Soviet on procedure for putting this
law into effect are published. The law and
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resolution are dated March 20, 1992.
The ten articles of the law are divid-
ed into four sections entitled respectively
"General Provisions"; "Organization, Plann-
ing and Financing of Conversion of Defense
Industry"; "Social Protection. Compensa-
tions and Benefits for Converted Enterpris-
es"; and "Foreign Economic Activities of
Enterprises in Conditions of Conversion."
An introductory paragraph states that the
law defines legal principles for the work
of defense enterprises, organizations and
associations and of organizations associat-
ed with them in conditions of reduction or
termination of defense orders and conver-
sion of their industrial capacities, scien-
tific-technical potential and labor re-
sources in this connection., The law regu-
lates mutual relations between state admin-
istrative agencies and defense enterprises
in the process of conversion and stipulates
a procedure for resolving legal, economic
and social questions which arise in the
process of conversion, with the aim of uti-
lizing production capacities, scientific-
technical potential and labor resources of
converted enterprises as effectively as
possible for civilian purposes.
Article 2 stipulates that production
for military needs shall be reduced or ter-
minated at defense enterprises in accor-
dance with decisions of state governing
bodies or actual reductions of expenditures
for these purposes from the budget. The
main operating principle of enterprises
which are being converted shall be utiliza-
tion of high technologies of the defense
complex for production of output which is
capable of competing on the foreign market.
Production capacities, labor resources and
scientific-technical potential which are
freed in the process of conversion shall be
enlisted in carrying out high-priority
state targeted programs for the social and
economic development of the Russian Federa-
tion. Enterprises which are being con-
verted shall be supplied on a contractual
basis, using funds allocated for defense
needs. Mobilization capacities shall be
created, preserved and developed in accor-
dance with assignments approved by the fed-
eration's government.
Article 10 provides for protection of
the military-economic and scientific-tech-
nical potential of the Russian Federation.
In line with this article, converted enter-
prises must be governed strictly by limita-
tions which are set on the export, transfer
or exchange of products and technologies
that are intended for civilian purposes but
can be used for development of weapons of
mass destruction. These limitations shall
be set by the federation's Supreme Soviet
and government. Converted enterprises' are
required to follow certain rules in their
foreign economic activities. These rules
call for strategic types of raw materials,
other materials and equipment to be export-
ed in accordance with licenses conforming
to laws of the Russian Federation; and for
technologies, licenses, know-how and scien-
tific-technical information for organizing
production of civilian products and/or uti-
lizing them in trade and scientific-techni-
cal relations with foreign firms to be
transferred on the condition that the fed-
eration's military-economic interests are
protected. Weapons; military equipment;
special systems, complexes, functional
units and assemblies which are components
of weapons and military technology; and
processes for producing these items shall
be sold to other states in accordance with
procedure established by the federation's
government.
(SNAP 920521)
Author: Velichkin, S.
Title: METEOROLOGICAL INFORMATION-GATHER-
ING SYSTEM "RUTA" FOR HIGH ELEVATIONS
Primary Source: Pravda Vostoka, March 10,
1992, No. 49 (22769), p. 4, cols. 2-5
Extract: Testing of the new automated sys-
tem for the collection and processing of
hydrometeorological information "Ruta" has
begun at the "Dukant" avalanche station of
the Uzbek Hydrometeorology Service (Uzgi-
dromet). Authors of the unique development
are the Kiev Institute of Automation, the
Central Asian Scientific Research Hydrome-
teorology Institute and Uzgidromet special-
ists.
"'Ruta' is intended for telemetry of
hydrometeorological parameters," said one
of its developers, V. A. Korobkov, chief
engineer of "Dukant" and a laureate of the
USSR State Prize. "Specifically, one can
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obtain with it data about air temperature
and humidity, wind velocity and direction,
snow temperature, depth and density, dura-
tion of sunshine, physicomechanical parame-
ters of the snow cover, and time of ava-
lanche occurrence."
Special sensors are installed at hard-
to-reach high-altitude locations. The in-
formation gathered with them is transmitted
automatically via radio communication chan-
nels into the computer of the avalanche
station. All measurements are made accord-
ing to a special program, which is entered
into a personal computer. The information
is processed and transmitted by telephone
to the Tashkent Hydrometeorology Center for
subsequent analysis and compilation of
weather forecasts.
"Ruta" is a new generation of the
"TM-910 Lavina" telemetry complex. The
complex has proved itself well in the ava-
lanche service, in collecting diverse hy-
drological information and in the eiiuiina?
tion of the consequences of the Chernobyl
accident.
The main advantage of "Ruta" is its
versatility. The system makes it possible
to conduct measurements without human par-
ticipation in difficult conditions and to
obtain information for 3,000 square kilome-
ters.
(Two photographs are given showing
V. A. Korobkov and Candidate of Physical-
Mathematical Sciences V. V. Ipatov, a rep-
resentative of the special design bureau
"Meteopribor" of the scientific production
association "Tayfun" from Obninsk, with
weather data; and Petr Lifanov, head of
"Dukant," getting "Ruta" ready for opera-
tion on a snow-covered slope.)
(SNAP 920521)
Author: Kapustin, Sergey
Title: PHYSICAL-FIELD THERAPEUTIC DEVICE
DEVELOPED AT DEFENSE ENTERPRISE
Primary Source: Kuranty, Apri 28, 1992,
No. 82 (347), p. 8, cols. 1-5
Extract: Professor, Doctor of Medicine
Dzhuna (Yevgeniya Yuvashevna Davitashvili)
has been the first to report truly sensa-
tional news to our newspaper: he~U.S-
1
912R000600120002-7
Patent Office has issued her Document No.
5095901 registering a stimulator which
bears her name.
"The human biofield is a combination
of infrared, microwave and electrostatic
fields," Dzhuna explained. "At a Moscow
defense enterprise, a device which emits
spec ca y 7-75-e -fields that are character-
istic for man was developed for the first
time under my direction. Its radiating
surface was designed in the shape of a
hand. Every radiator on it is connected to
a computer, into which a specific program
has been entered. What kind [of program]?
Changes in the radiation parameters of the
fields in my hand during the treatment of
particular diseases have been measured, and
this is what became the basis of the com-
puter's 'mind.' Thus, when the necessary
operating conditions have been specified,
the robot extrasensory will in some cases
be able to take my place."
(A photograph of Dzhuna is given.)
(SNAP 920521)
Title: Yu. B. KOBZAREV (obituary)
Primary Source: Moskovskaya Pravda, April
29, 1992, No. 83 (171), p. 8, cols. 7-8
Extract: Yuriy Borisovich Kobzarev, an em-
inent scientist i n the field of radio engi-
neerina and radionhvsics, died on !F 2 .,
1992, at the age of 86. He was a Hero of
o ialist Labor, a laureate of the USSR
State Prize and a member of the Russian
Academy of Sciences.
The death announcement is made with
deep regret by the academy's presidium, its
division of general physics and astronomy
and its Institute of Radio Engineering and
Electronics, and sincere condolences are
expressed to the family and friends of the
deceased.
(SNAP 920521)
Recipients of the Daily SNAP are advised
that SNAP is intended solely for U.S. gov-
ernment agencies and their designated con-
tractors.
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