Prospect of Biological and Nuclear Terrorism in Central Asia and Russia. Musa Khan Jalalzai
a key role in the development of weapons of mass destruction. Uranium was extracted throughout the region and shipped to uranium enrichment facilities in other parts of former Soviet Union and later incorporated into nuclear weapons. A large-scale anthrax production facility in Stepnogorsk, Kazakhstan, was dismantled. The fact is the threat of WMD materials in Central Asia could be used as a transit point for materials originating elsewhere. Both Russia and Central Asia now fight virus on their soil, but the question is who transported Coronavirus to the region. Definitely, international air travel might have caused the transfer of virus to the region. Analyst and expert Ellen Laipson (30 Mar 2020) is on the opinion that intelligence infrastructure and satellites can easily detect viruses:
“Diseases can be invented in laboratories, and pathogens are held in store by defense ministries in some countries, presumably for defensive purposes, to prepare antidotes should their armed forces be attacked by a biological weapon from an adversary. But the coronavirus health crisis reminds us that biological weapons, unlike nuclear or chemical weapons, are exceedingly hard to find and detect in enough time to respond. While satellites can detect large military facilities, and intelligence services monitor chemical capabilities of states and non-state actors, biology is everywhere. A malign actor can weaponise a pathogen in very low-technology ways. Recall the anthrax scare after the September 11 attacks. For weeks, there was fear and considerable disruption to normal traffic in the US capital. In the end, it was a lone attacker, a trained medical research doctor, who had access to laboratory specimens. His motives were never discovered. Scholars who work on biological weapons make other distinctions between them and the other “weapons of mass destruction.” According to Gregory Koblentz, author of “Living Weapons: Biological Warfare and International Security,” biological weapons are not particularly useful on the battlefield, are developed in great secrecy and do not really work as traditional deterrents in the big geopolitical landscape. But they are an effective tool of intimidation, or useful in asymmetric warfare when a smaller, weaker party can inflict damage and fear on an enemy with greater conventional warfighting capability”.12
As mentioned earlier, the United States wants to establish long term partnership with Central Asian States in order to confine Russia to a specific region, and deploy hundred thousands of jihadist forces to easily penetrate into Russian Federation for fight against the armed forces. The United States has already trained thousands of jihadists from Central Asia inside Pakistan and Afghanistan. Analyst Kristen Cheriegate (13 February, 2020) has reviewed the US engagement in Central Asia:
“U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s early February visit to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan marks a notable achievement for Central Asia: The United States is keeping an active eye on the region. An increased number of visits to the former Soviet republics has occurred in recent years, with U.S. officials voicing interest in strengthening relations. The State Department declared in a December special briefing that it had “intensified [its] bilateral diplomatic engagements with Central Asia” this past year. However, the Trump administration may experience a difficult time with its current strategy if key parties are not involved. During the meeting between the foreign ministers of all five Central Asian republics and Pompeo earlier this month, one important regional power not only was absent, but was negatively singled out – China....On the economic front, China has heavily pivoted to Central Asia in the past decade, and recognized the region as the backbone of the Belt and Road Initiative’s “Silk Road Economic Belt” – an overland network of infrastructure corridors that connect Chinese goods to European consumers via Central Asia. Billions in joint venture investments were made to develop Caspian Sea hydrocarbon fields, and Kazakhstan has some of the region’s largest reserves of oil and gas. In a reflective example of current U.S.-Chinese relations, Pompeo cautioned the Central Asian countries not to become overly dependent on Beijing and criticized Chinese business and lending practices”.13
The presence of Russia and China in Central Asia is considered as a “neighbors’ right”. The US engagement in Central Asia is a serious threat to the national security of Russia as CIA and Pentagon using Pakistan and Afghanistan to train the ISIS fighters and transport them to their destination. Soon after Pompeo’s Central Asia tour, the “United States Strategy for Central Asia 2019-2025: Advancing Sovereignty and Economic Prosperity” was published. Moreover, while in Kazakhstan, Pompeo raised the issue of Uighurs of Xinjiang, prompting top Chinese diplomats to rebuke this demarche against China. The US new hegemonic design in the region reinvigorated the perspective of international politics in the region as a geopolitical game.
Bioterrorism is involving the intentional release or dissemination of biological agents. These agents are bacteria, viruses, fungi, or toxins, and may be in a naturally occurring or a human-modified form, in much the same way in biological warfare. Biological agents are used by the terrorists to attain their social or political goals and are used for killing or injuring people, plants and animals. Response of Europe to the threat of future bioterrorism seems limited due to political and economic reservations of some member states. The approach to searching for biological agents at airports and shipping container entry points, and promoting bio-hazard awareness raised several important questions. Biological terrorism can be loosely categorised based on the agent used. The virus threat including smallpox, influenza, dengue fever, yellow fever, Rift Valley fever, and haemorrhagic fevers like Lassa, Ebola, and Marburg. Smallpox spreads directly from person to person. The third category of bio-threat is ‘bacteria’, which includes anthrax, plague, and cholera. There are numerous reports on the genetically development of viruses by some states to use it and achieve their political and economic goal.
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