BIOLOGICAL AGENT SUSPECTED IN SICKNESS AT SOVIET CITY

CIA-STARGATE

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According to documents from the CIA's Stargate program, there were reports of a possible outbreak of a disease believed to be caused by a biological agent in a Soviet city near the Ural Mountains. The Department of State refused to provide further information about the biological agent involved or confirm the exact number of deaths. However, multiple officials expressed curiosity and suggested that there may be some truth to the reports. The Soviet government consistently denied any accidents involving biological weapons. The documents also mentioned another incident in 1979 near Novosibirsk.

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Body:  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