The Washington Post: Satellite images show an unusual expansion of construction on the site of a closed Soviet biological laboratory near Sergiev Posad

Over the past two years, satellite images have recorded an unusual expansion of construction at a closed site near the military town of Sergiev Posad-6, where an old Soviet biological laboratory was located, The Washington Post writes .

Journalists studied images provided by Google Earth, as well as commercial companies Maxar and Planet Labs. Unusual activity at the facility in question began around May 2022, several months after Russian troops invaded Ukraine, WP notes.

The pictures show construction vehicles renovating an old Soviet laboratory and laying the foundations of 10 new buildings. Some of them, as WP writes, have the characteristic features of biological laboratories designed to work with extremely dangerous pathogens.

The reporters also showed the satellite images to several experts, including current and former US intelligence officials, military personnel and biological defense specialists. They noted a number of signs that together indicate a biological object with a high degree of protection.

One sign is an unusually large amount of air handling equipment in four buildings. This, according to experts, is typical for laboratories with a high degree of security. The site also includes a building with tall chimneys that experts believe is a small independent power plant, and images taken in April and May 2023 show construction of an underground tunnel connecting it to the laboratory. Other photos taken during the construction of one of the buildings show the internal division into compartments. According to experts, this layout corresponds to the design of a "maximum isolation" laboratory.

The Russian military did not hide the construction at the site. In April 2024, the head of the 48th Central Research Institute of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Sergei Borisevich, said in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper that by the end of the year it is planned to complete the construction of “a new unique research cluster, including laboratory buildings.” According to him, this will allow “even more rapid response to biological threats.”

Andrew Weber, a former senior Pentagon nonproliferation official who investigated Soviet biological weapons sites in the 1990s, said Moscow was warning adversaries of potential use. “Putin is openly brandishing nuclear weapons in the press. But since they will never admit to having biological weapons, the way to send a signal is to talk about these objects. The subtle hint here is, “Hey, we have this opportunity. And don’t think that we won’t use it,’” he says.