The United States explained why they collect biological material from Russians. Question of the day. Who collects biomaterials from Russians and why?

Who collects biomaterials of Russians, why Vladimir Putin’s statements are dangerous for geneticists and why social network users are in vain laughing at the president’s excitement, read the material on the site.

Images, samples, “pichalka”

On October 30, a meeting of the Council for the Development of Civil Society on Human Rights was held, at which the country's President Vladimir Putin said that someone was collecting biological material from Russians. This is how the president responded to the words of the chairman of the board of the All-Russian public organization “Russian Public Institute of Electoral Law”, Igor Borisov, that images of Russian citizens are being collected with the help of a video surveillance system in Russia for unknown purposes.

“Regarding the fact that images of our citizens and voters are collected by someone and somehow used... Images are okay, but you know that biological material is collected throughout the country, and from different ethnic groups and people living in different geographical locations Russian Federation? Here’s the question: why are they doing this?” the President addressed the Council members.

“They do it purposefully and professionally. We are such an object of great interest. Therefore, in the first part of what I said, all this is interconnected. We need, of course, to approach this without any fear. Let them do what they want, and we must do what we must, and taking into account your comments we will organize this work,” Putin worried. According to Dmitry Peskov, the president receives this information from the special services.

The president's words caused the expected excitement among social media users. Thus, Doctor of Biological Sciences, popularizer of science Mikhail Gelfand, in the usual emotional manner, criticized the president’s statement. “First of all, this is crap. Secondly, she jumped out in response to something completely wrong (you are talking about elections - we are talking about genetic weapons - i.e. it sits in the subcortex). Thirdly, he didn’t come up with this himself, some bastard sang it (I think I know who this bastard is). As well as about the Sochi genetic soldiers. In general, this is already a clinic. Pichalka,” – wrote he's on his Facebook.

Geneticists, however, do collect biomaterials. “As far as I know, there are two centers in our country, one in Moscow and the other in St. Petersburg, that collect biomaterials from various peoples of Russia and send them to their colleagues in the USA. The main goal of these studies, judging by the publications that have appeared in recent years, is to study the genetic diversity of different ethnic groups in Russia, to search for differences between them, including what diseases affect them, and to describe these differences,” - said the director of Genotek, geneticist Valery Ilyinsky. The site has already written about one of such studies by the company in “In search of “indigenous” Russians: how not to talk about genetic research.”

Senior Researcher at the Institute for Information Transmission Problems named after A.A. Kharkevich RAS Alexander Panchin recalled the US Air Force tender for the purchase of 12 samples of RNA molecules and synovial tissue from Russians (it was published on the US government procurement portal - website note). According to the terms of the tender, donors must be citizens of Russia, Caucasians, without injuries to the musculoskeletal system, with negative tests for HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and syphilis. Russian media then actively discussed the announced tender and suggested that the United States was developing genetic weapons, and Russia Today experts even said that the Americans could be preparing to create military viruses.

Viruses at the ready!

Creating genetic weapons or “combat viruses” is technically quite difficult: most of the genomes of different people are similar, and human populations can be very diverse and constantly mix with each other. As a result, the concept of a “pure nation” simply does not exist now. While it is theoretically possible to create biological weapons against some small group of people who have lived in genetic isolation for thousands of years, it is impossible to create viruses that kill “only Russians, but not Chukchis,” “only Americans, but not Canadians.” In addition, a lot of time and money would have to be spent on this, so the end clearly would not justify the means.

“Firstly, not enough biomaterial is collected; we still don’t really know our population frequencies according to the ExAC type (Exome Aggregation Consortium, a scientific project that collects and combines data on read regions of the genome, on the basis of which protein is synthesized, making this data available to the scientific community - website note), secondly, collecting biomaterial is not at all difficult, because everyone travels abroad and takes saliva and hair with them, thirdly, genetic weapons are from the realm of unscientific fiction,” comments Andrey Afanasyev, founder and CEO of iBinom and yRisk companies .

“It is impossible to make a genetic weapon, although after the restriction on the export of biomaterials in 2008, a lot of stories appeared around,” notes Svetlana Borinskaya, chief researcher. laboratory of genome analysis IOG named after N.I. Vavilova. According to her, it is, of course, possible to identify genetic differences between nations: “The Chinese genetically cannot tolerate milk, and if the Chinese army is given milk to drink, it will not be able to get up from the potty for half a day. It would seem, why not a weapon? But this is impossible to use. The fact is that numerous peoples do not have such genetic characteristics that would distinguish only one ethnic group and are absent in others. If among the Chinese there are approximately 98% of people with lactose intolerance, among the Russians there will be 35-40%, and even if we make a weapon that will kill on this basis, then it will kill not only the enemy, but also a third of our own and part of everyone around us.” . According to the expert, only close relatives are very noticeably similar genetically, but these are too small groups of people, and making weapons against them is pointless.

Svetlana Borinskaya suggested that the president was talking about the collection of biomaterials by scientists, but it is difficult to understand which ones exactly. “If we are talking about genetics, then such studies are carried out in all developed countries,” she commented. - Scientific groups often involve scientists from different countries, they combine their results, make their genomes available to the public, and there is no danger in this. Perhaps we are talking about the case with synovial tissue. To put it simply, these are joint tissues. Of course, it does not indicate why they were needed, but perhaps foreign scientists requested them from Russia because here it is possible to quickly obtain permission from the ethical commission, because medical research always requires such approval, checking whether harm is caused to the project participants. One can only guess what kind of material collection we are talking about. If we do talk about this case, it’s surprising how well-informed senior management is that they already know about such a small tender.”

Conspiracy craze

The president’s statement may have negative consequences for the work of geneticists in Russia, believes Senior Researcher at the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Philology Alexey Kasyan. The expert added that biomaterials are already collected throughout the country. “Biological samples are actually being collected all over the country, and this is important for science. Geneticists collect, travel through regions and districts, stick a stick in the cheek (saliva, epithelium) or take blood. There are practical goals: knowing the geographical distribution of the gene pool, you can, for example, indicate the probable place of origin of a dead terrorist based on his DNA. Potentially, there are ways out into medicine (slightly different medications may be more useful for different populations). There are purely scientific goals: the reconstruction of ancient migrations and prehistory, but taxpayers are also willing to pay for this,” he wrote. In his opinion, Putin’s words could harm geneticists, since regional leaders may refuse support when organizing research expeditions and even resist the arrival of geneticists.

It is important to note that biomaterial, by definition, which is contained in official regulatory documents (for example, in the “Rules for the import into the territory of the Russian Federation and export outside the territory of the Russian Federation of biological materials ...”), are “samples of biological fluids, tissues, secretions and products human activity, physiological and pathological secretions, smears, scrapings, washings, microorganisms, biopsy material.” As we can see, the painfully familiar tests that we take at every medical examination at the local clinic fit perfectly into this list. “You can do whatever you want with them, so there is no such thing as just a biomaterial, it is for something. Biomaterial for the production of immunobiological drugs, for example,” explains Alexey Vodovozov.

There are also many versions as to why the president needed to say such a sacramental phrase. Some believe that someone wants to attract more attention and funding: either certain authorities to the military-industrial complex, or certain scientists to their research. Others think the president was simply trying to avoid a political dispute with Igor Borisov, chairman of the Council of the Russian Public Institute of Electoral Law. “If you carefully watch the full broadcast of the said discussion on YouTube, you will see that the story begins with the fact that a certain Mr. Igor Borisov meaningfully informed the president that a million views of open cameras at polling stations came from foreign IP addresses. From which he (Igor) concludes that it’s not without reason, oh, it’s not without reason that foreign neural networks are studying our Russian faces - we know from Edik Snowden, it’s not without reason! With the next phrase, Mr. Borisov is preparing to propose banning cameras at polling stations. The President needed to stop this farce, and abruptly and without going into an actual discussion,”

the site studied the opinions of scientists about Putin’s “exposure” of hostile Russian biomaterial collectors.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting in the Kremlin with members of the Human Rights Council (HRC). The most striking moment of which was, of course, the topic of collecting biomaterials from Russians.

It all started innocently enough. The director of the Russian Public Institute of Electoral Law, Igor Borisov, said that “certain individuals, using a video surveillance system in the Russian Federation, are collecting images of Russian citizens for unknown purposes.” He came to this conclusion based on data that “950 thousand views of broadcasts from polling stations on a single voting day on September 10 were initiated from IP addresses from abroad.” The HRC member was seriously alarmed by the fact that “so many interested people are watching our elections,” and how the video recording of the ceremonial putting of the ballot into the ballot box could be used further.

And then the president made it clear to Mr. Borisov that he does not know everything about the treachery of those very “interested people.” And that some unknown foreign organizations have gone further and are already collecting “biological material”, literally “samples of Russian citizens” of various ethnic groups. For what purpose this is being done, the president, as it turns out, is not aware. A little later, his words were spoken by press secretary Dmitry Peskov, clarifying that this was “information from the special services of the Russian Federation.”

So, it turns out that he and his boss leaked secret information? Of course not, how could you think that! Moreover, all the mysterious collectors of biomaterials and their goals turned out to be well known for a long time and Putin’s alleged ignorance should actually be considered a matter of concern. As the representative of Memorial, deputy, explained on the air of Radio Liberty. Chairman of the Council of the Scientific Information and Educational Center of the Society Nikita Petrov, this is a long-standing study of the compilation of a genetic map by scientists from different countries, including Russia. Which will allow us to understand where and what nationalities lived previously, to trace their genetic connections and migrations. “It’s strange that the president doesn’t know about this,” said Petrov. “Is he poorly informed?” Nikita Petrov called the general alarm about the presidential revelations a “paranoid exercise.”

And this, apparently, is not the only genetic research: as explained by Doctor of Biological Sciences, bioinformatician Mikhail Gelfand, we can also talk about research into the genetic determinants of joint diseases. The scientist, we believe, relied on information about the Pentagon’s intention to purchase samples of ribonucleic acid (RNA) and synovial fluid (filler of the joint cavity) of Caucasian Russians, which appeared in the media several months ago. As Gelfand clarified in

black_libertine: was he a professor at the small Pogib? He's probably a little crest. Just like Yanukovych. Also a professor...
And I’m asking about the ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR. Goridze had an assistant professor
PETYAEV Nikolai Stepanovich. So he was an assistant professor at YOU. Together with the Georgian Goridze Avas who. Even.

black_libertine November 02, 2017 | 16:01

ostapbey: Professor Pogiba is a woman. It's been over 10 years, so I might be confused. I think her name was Svetlana Petrovna, and then she was the head of the department of Dendrology and Selection. I didn’t know the Georgian teachers, I only knew the Tajik assistant professor, whom I helped with the computer. But the Tajik was from a different department, it seems from the ground (accent on the last syllable, the local slang of that time)... There was also Glazunov, a meteorologist, and I remember a woman who taught physical education in Special B (I’m asthmatic) ...

black_libertine:
this woman was named Burko or Burko. She was going to specialize in beet growing. But I found a place for the family in sheep farming..
Now she is a writer. Has a number of awards. Even a laureate.

black_libertine November 02, 2017 | 19:28

ostapbey: Sorry, I thought you were trolling me. I remembered Avas. I'm sorry, this was over 10 years ago. I graduated from the institute when Putin had just begun to be president... So, I remembered the schedule in “Derevyashchka”, Avas was definitely there, but he was not with us, but with a parallel group. And he seemed to be a graduate student then, if I’m not confusing anything (or a senior lecturer). We had women teaching dendrology and genetics... Dendrology was taught by a grandmother who naturally smoked a pipe... But genetics, genetics was taught by the head of the department, who was a woman at that time. She said that she stood at the origins of the department, that she became a geneticist by accident, when she was preparing for exams, she fell out of the world around her a little and missed the moment when genetics ceased to be a pseudoscience. And she blurted it out during the exam, but they told her that no, now it’s part of Soviet science...
Burko, I also remember such a surname there... But I don’t remember it. I can name the names of those I remember. Physical education was taught by Lyubov Petrovna Kryzhanovskaya, she is a sports medicine doctor, the hall for special groups was in a high-rise dorm on the first floor, in the same place as the Lestekhovskaya clinic, and in another dorm there was a hall for general physical training. There was also Brusovankin in physics, but he was responsible for the economics departments, so I saw him only once, when he passed the second higher education, passing physics at the first, saying I already had it...
Further, Obydennikov read Forestry, Nikitin conducted the practice - he was a huge forester from the Sergiev Posad forestry enterprise, he said that he worked there in parallel, the Department of Ecology was headed by Mazolevskaya, there was also a Department of Geodesy nearby, there was a teacher Boris Viktorovich Stepanov, he drove a red old Passat. He died. Matusevich was still there at the taxation department. Everyone knows him. But we had Zavarzin, and the guy gave lectures, I don’t remember his name, but his fingers were cut off with a chainsaw... He also died...

black_libertine November 02, 2017 | 19:39

ostapbey: Yes, and Vyacheslav Gavrilovich Glazunov was generally a great guy. A better atheist than Nevzorov. There is an article of his on the Internet about believing scientists, where he naturally writes that there are no believing scientists... He conducted weather forecasts on the zombie box when the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company had just been created, and participated in the investigation of plane crashes as a meteorologist. And he gave a course of optional lectures on panspermia... He is an ardent supporter of panspermia...
In addition, I remembered the philosopher. Professor Rumyantsev. He told me during the exam that I was an anarchist. Ten years passed after the exam, and I naturally became a market anarchist (libertarian), so thank you for setting me on the right path. But he also died, this Rumyantsev. The historian was Sergei Ivanovich Krasikov. Former military pilot, supporter of conscription (conscription), etc. and for women too... I analyzed the article of the Constitution at a lecture, and said that from the article the enemies of the liberals removed one important word that was in the Soviet Constitution. Military service is an honorable duty for EVERY citizen... He said that they had removed the word “everyone” and looked at the girls meaningfully... I remembered this moment for the rest of my life...
Something like this? I hope some names are familiar to you...

The day before, on October 30, during a meeting of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights (HRC), Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that foreigners are collecting biological material from Russian citizens.

During the meeting, the head of the public organization "Russian Public Institute of Electoral Law" Igor Borisov informed the president that almost a million views from abroad (950 thousand) were recorded from polling stations on the Unified Voting Day in Russia on September 10. According to him, certain individuals are using a video surveillance system in the Russian Federation to collect images of Russian citizens for unknown purposes.

“The question is why so many interested parties are watching our elections and video recording the actual image of a person and how it will be used in the future,” Borisov said.

"Regarding the fact that images of our citizens and voters are collected and somehow used. Images, that’s okay. But you know that biological material is collected throughout the country. Moreover, for different ethnic groups and people living in different geographical locations of the Russian Federations. The question is: why are they doing this? They do it purposefully and professionally. We are such an object of very great interest," Putin said.

“Of course, we must approach this without any fear: let them do what they want. But we must do what we must,” Putin concluded.

The statement caused a great resonance.

Doctor of Biological Sciences, bioinformatics specialist Mikhail Gelfand, in a commentary to the National News Service (NSN), explained what kind of collection of biological material Russian President Vladimir Putin was talking about the day before, emphasizing that we are not talking about all the ethnic groups of the country.

“Someone greatly deceived Vladimir Putin. They collect data not from all ethnic groups in the country, but only from Russians. Judging by the information that is available, we are talking about genetic determinants of joint diseases. I don’t know why they need the Russians, perhaps because they want to separate the mutations that cause predisposition from the purely historical trace. This is always a problem,” Gelfand said.

At the same time, according to the scientist, the use of the collected material to create genetic weapons is excluded. “This is some kind of disgusting lie. There is no such weapon. People are too similar to each other to be able to create specific weapons against any race,” he explained.

“It is probably possible to create - very expensive and very difficult - a weapon against some very small ethnic group that has not mixed with anyone for the last thousand years. Russians are not such an ethnic group. It is probably possible, after spending crazy amounts of money, to figure out how to exterminate the inhabitants of the so-called Andaman Islands. But there are simpler ways for this,” the biologist added.

Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov has also already commented on the words of his boss, saying that the special services actually have data on the collection of biological material from the country’s residents.

“This information comes from Russia’s special services. Indeed, some emissaries are conducting such activities, representatives of non-governmental organizations and other bodies,” Peskov said.

In turn, the Federation Council stated that it is ready to take part in the development of a bill that would make it possible to equate samples of biological materials of Russians with their personal data and introduce similar protection at the legislative level.
“If there is really information that concerns the president about the state of affairs in this area, we will be happy to get involved in legislative work,” Valery Ryazansky, head of the Federation Council Committee on Social Policy, told RIA Novosti.

Let us recall that earlier, on October 21, during a meeting with participants of the World Festival of Youth and Students in Sochi, Vladimir Putin said that the technology of creating a person with given characteristics using.

“Genetic engineering, which will certainly give us amazing opportunities in the field of pharmacology, new drugs, changing the genetic code if a person suffers from a genetic disease, is wonderful. But there is another component of this process,” he said.

“What does this mean: a person acquires the ability to get into the genetic code created either by nature, or, religious people say, by the Lord God. One can even imagine, not even theoretically, but practically, that a person can create a person with given characteristics. This could be a brilliant mathematician, it could be a brilliant musician, but it could also be a military man - a person who can fight without a feeling of fear and regret. And without pain,” explained the head of state.

According to the Russian president, humanity can soon enter and, most likely, will definitely enter a very important and responsible period of its existence and development.

“What I just said may be worse than a nuclear bomb. When we do something, no matter what we do, we must never forget about the moral and ethical foundations of our business,” Putin concluded.

Even earlier, in the summer of 2017, a US Air Force tender for the purchase of living tissue from Caucasian Russians was published on the official US government procurement portal Federal Business Opportunity. According to the text document, the US Air Force plans to buy 12 samples of ribonucleic acid (RNA is one of the three main macromolecules found in the cells of all living organisms) and 27 samples of synovial membrane (produces the fluid necessary for joint function). The purpose of collecting material was not indicated.

The Russia Today TV channel then tried to find out for what purpose such data could be collected. In an interview with the TV channel, scientists stated that RNA samples are used in medicine to develop drugs against specific diseases. “The more you know about people's genetic diversity, the better your ability, in particular, to treat and diagnose diseases. All people are different from each other. That is, the genetic background and the reasons for the extent to which differences in genes are responsible for some other differences in people are still not understood and are the subject of active study,” said Konstantin Severinov, a professor at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology and Rutgers University in the USA.

And according to the chief researcher of the Institute of General Genetics. Vavilov RAS Sergei Kiselev, RNA is not an effective material for creating biological weapons: “If it were in the interests of the army, these would be very specific interests.” Even RNA samples extracted from muscle will be different from those extracted from blood. Thus, weapons developed based on it would have an extremely narrow effect.

After Putin’s speech yesterday, the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper quoted in its material the words of retired FSB Major General Alexander Mikhailov.

“This is a very serious topic. And the fact that the president voiced it means that it is moving into the implementation stage,” says Mikhailov. “The theory of breeding a new race itself is not new. Such experiments have been carried out before, for example, in Nazi Germany "In this case, we are most likely talking about creating a system of influencing a person at the cellular, chromosomal level. A biosample opens the way to influencing the body."

“If someone intends to transfer the war to the level of genetics and influence the enemy at the cellular level, then for the other side the collection of biomaterials can result in colossal losses. After all, biological warfare is not only the spread of viruses and infections: the impact on individual human cells can also cause "colossal effect! This is the most villainous invention, which, of course, should be banned along with chemical weapons," the expert is sure.

According to the director of Genotek Valery Ilyinsky, two centers are collecting biomaterial from Russians, while the research itself is being conducted in the USA. Judging by the publications, the purpose of the research is to study genetic diversity, including diseases that affect different ethnic groups.

“In theory, such variations can be used for a hypothetical attack on their carriers, but in practice such approaches are not used, and I have never heard of anyone trying to do this,” RIA Novosti quotes the geneticist as saying.

Experts recall cases of mysterious epidemics

Unknown persons for unknown purposes are collecting biological materials from our citizens throughout Russia. Experts believe that the purpose of this may be, among other things, the creation of selective genetic weapons. However, the possibility of its appearance in the near future raises doubts among experts.

Let us recall that Putin made a statement about the collection of biomaterials from Russians at a meeting of the Human Rights Council. “Biological material is collected throughout the country. Moreover, for different ethnic groups and people living in different geographical locations of the Russian Federation. They do it purposefully and professionally. We are such an object of interest,” the president said.

According to military expert Anatoly Tsyganok, the collection of biomaterials was organized by the Americans to create a new generation of biological weapons. “This will be a selective genetic weapon. Its use is extremely difficult to identify and identify, and the loss of life may be greater than that of an atomic bomb.”

Such research has been carried out by the American military for a long time, Tsyganok added, and over the past decades several possible cases of the use of such weapons have been recorded. In particular, the expert recalled an episode that occurred about thirty years ago in Latin America. “There is a known case of pig poisoning in Cuba in the late 1980s. Within two months, all these animals died on the island.”

Information about the Americans collecting biological materials from Russians appeared in the summer of this year. Then it became known that the US Air Force command had placed a contract for the purchase of several RNA samples from Russians. As stated in the contract, “all samples must be taken in Russia from Caucasians,” a separate clause stipulated that samples from Ukraine would not be accepted.

An expert in the field of biological research for military purposes, on condition of anonymity, told MK that the Americans can use them to create new viruses that will infect specific ethnic groups. “This situation was observed in 2002 during the so-called SARS epidemic in China. Then, in this country, the SARS coronavirus killed the Chinese and other Asians, but did not touch a single European.”

The expert admitted that such biological weapons could theoretically be used against our country if tensions in relations between Russia and the United States reach the limit after which war is declared. “If launching a nuclear strike on Russia is suicidal for America, then they can inflict unacceptable losses on us with the help of diseases for which there is no cure.”

He added that similar developments were carried out in our country. In particular, he recalled an incident in Sverdlovsk in 1979, when a cloud of anthrax spores was released from a military biological laboratory located in the Chkalovsky district of the city. Then the epidemic of this terrible disease claimed, according to various sources, about a hundred lives of local residents. “It should be noted that the defeat of people was quite selective. Among the victims were mostly men, and of the most able-bodied age, from 30 to 40 years old.” The expert declined to comment on the question of whether such types of biological weapons exist in Russia today.

At the same time, a researcher at the Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics of the Ufa Scientific Center, Konstantin Kitaev, questioned the conclusions of military experts. In particular, the SARS outbreak in China did not affect Europeans due to differences in immunity from Asians. “I think it's a coincidence. It’s just that the Chinese did not have the same immunity as representatives of European nationalities, which is why SARS affected them so much.” As for the development of selective genetic weapons, according to Kitaev, at the current level of technological development this is impossible.