Vector, virology center in Novosibirsk region, had information on the coronavirus even before China made a report on it to the World Health Organization Photo: Serhii Krylatov / Gordonua.com

In September 2019, when no one heard of the coronavirus yet, near Novosibirsk fire occurred on secured facility called Vector – one of the largest viruses repositories in the world

– In our previous interview you explained why you consider recent events in Russia, – including resetting count for Putin’s terms in office, amendments to Constitution, ruble rate plunge accompanied by global oil prices fall, – why you consider it nothing but an attempt by joint bloc of security and law enforcement related officials in Kremlin, to remove Putin from the office. The coronavirus outbreak that is currently storming throughout the world including Russia; does it accelerate or postpone these plans?

– Forecast for coronavirus death toll is starting to look like a bounded nuclear war. At any rate, the number that President Trump announced on Tuesday of 200 thousand possible deaths in the USA could be compared to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing casualties.

It reminds me of a recent discussion on-line. It was started by respected Russian analysts Andrey Piontkovsky and Valery Solovei, and then I have joint it, too. It concerned possible Putin’s removal from power that allegedly might be accompanied by big war. I expressed an assumption that Putin’s close circle might imitate “the big war” in order to blame it on Putin, remove him from power, and get from Washington an indulgence for previous crimes.

– More than that, you named people from that close circle: Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council, Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the FSB, Igor Sechin, CEO of Rosneft.

– And now, when the world is petrified by further pandemic development, and Putin has fled to Valdai, I feel suspicion: has it really begun?

– How are they connected: “big war” imitation and coronavirus outbreak that started in China at the end of the last year?

– Let me explain what I mean. On September 2019, when no one heard of the coronavirus yet, Novosibirsk evacuation service “AST-54” reported fire on secured facility called Vector caused by massive explosion. Head of Koltsovo naukograd (science town) where Vector is located visited the scene of the incident and assured that there was no biological hazard and situation was under control. Press-office of regional branch of Ministry of Emergency Situations released a nebulous report stated that during repair works at the facility “a pop of gas-air mixture” had occurred.

All information about real causes and circumstances of the blast, and its consequences was immediately classified, as local media NGS reporter was told by firefighting station No3 in Koltsovo.

ВИДЕО

September 2019, Novosibirsk reporters cover the explosion at virology center Vector. Video: Вести Новосибирск / YouTube

On September 17, 2019 BBC reported the incident. Vector complex was stockpiling viruses including smallpox, bird flu and different kinds of hepatitis, reporters have said. According to BBC, in May 2004 a researcher at VECTOR died after accidentally pricking her left hand with a needle of syringe contained the Ebola virus. According to the media, explosion at Vector center might raise concerns about level of security of Russian special facilities left over from Cold War times. Soon after that, it was revealed that strains of coronavirus were also stored at Vector.

– Hold on, how was it publicly revealed?

– On January 27, 2020 Russian media announced that Vector was developing not even one but two vaccines against coronavirus. Moreover, it appeared that it was the only place in the country capable of testing for COVID-19, and probes from Moscow were transported there by airplanes until the end of March when adequate capacities were reached in Moscow facilities.

Vector familiarity with COVID-19, a disease almost unknown to the world before September 2019, could be partially explained by a piece of information made public in Russia in 1999. Then, Valentin Evstigneev, Head of the Department of Biological Protection at Ministry of Defense of Russia, told that Vector in 1980’s had homed development and industrial production of “offensive biological substances”. Vector was supposed to provide strains of smallpox, tularemia, plague, anthrax etc. to be carried in warheads of various weapon systems.

– Does it mean he was talking about biological weaponry of mass destruction?

– Exactly. According to Evstigneev, researches were terminated in 1992 not long after collapse of the USSR. Later, when Putin came into power such statements from RF were seriously questioned. In particular, Lisa Bronson, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, made a statement in US Congress in 2004. She claimed that Soviet biological weapon program’s facilities on Russian territory had become the points of risk from which bioweapons technology and pathogens could leak into terrorist hands.

Covering that hearings in Congress Nezavisimaya Gazeta printed on March 12, 2004: “Lev Sandakchiev, Academician, Director of SRC “Vector” in 2001 admitted: Terrorist would be able to easily persuade low-paid ex-Soviet scientists to participate in creation of bioweapon. Since then 139 scientist working in the center still remain low-paid.”

Russian secret services have great interest in Wuhan virology Institute

– But The State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology VECTOR is situated near Novosibirsk, and coronavirus according to open sources was originally discovered in Chinese city of Wuhan. The distance between these two cities, mind you, is about 5.5 thousand kilometers…

– In December 2019 China informed World Health Organization about an outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan. On January 7, 2020 pathogen was discovered and was given a name coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (the disease it induced was called COVID-19). Let me remind that in January Vector already actively processed probes for the virus received from Moscow. That means they knew about COVID-19 before China informed World Health Organization.

Now, China and the USA run a campaign of mutual accusations. Some Chinese media alleged that COVID-19 was brought to Wuhan from the American laboratory in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Other sources voiced an opinion that the virus leaked from classified Chinese military laboratory in Wuhan itself. While two tigers growl at each other, the sneaky monkey lurks. Novosibirsk blast disappeared from the focus of global public attention. And in vain.

как-то исчез из поля зрения международной общественности. И напрасно.

As of the morning of April 3, 2020 the number of coronavirus infection cases in the world reached 1 016 128. 53 146 people died of COVID-19, 211 615 people recovered. Photo: Pawel Supernak / ЕРА

Narrations about Fort Detrick and Wuhan laboratories from which bats allegedly fly straight into pans of local gourmet are pure speculations. However, the chain of events that followed the explosion at Vector raises some serious questions.

– Let us once again reconstruct that sequence in chronological order.

– OK. On September 16, 2019, a gas explosion occurred at Vector.

Military World Games opened on October 19 in Wuhan. Team of military personal from Russia successfully participated. There is no doubt of Russian secret services present on the spot.

In December, number of “pneumonia” cases in Wuhan grew explosively which meant the virus had started to spread in the area in November.

The main question for me is was COVID-19 brought to Wuhan by accident or on purpose.

– Which option are you inclined to?

– I think that probability of accident should not be turned out completely.

Russian secret services have great interest in Wuhan virology Institute. All facilities of such level in the world could be counted on fingers, and they all keep an eye on each other. Russian national team on Military World Games without a doubt included people from the GRU and the FSB. But, since virology demands certain level of specialized knowledge not only Chepiga and Mishkin but the experts also had to be present, quite possibly the experts from Vector, Russian largest virology center). One of them probably could even not know himself that he was carrying virus.

Still, I found more plausible the version that COVID-19 was deliberately delivered to Wuhan from Russia.

It appears that explosion at Vector became a Russian Chernobyl. Afterward the locals reported “flavor of smoke and contaminated air”. It is quite probable that an outburst happened and strains of coronavirus and possibly some other pathogens that we do not know about yet.

I think people skilled in internet researches should scrutinize Russian officials and scientists who visited Wuhan in October 2019

– If it is true the principal question is left: why did the Kremlin have an urge to infect China in particular?

– After the Vector blast the Kremlin panicked as usual. To organize full-scale damage control operation would mean to admit they jeopardized wellbeing of whole humanity. Therefore, they would have to bear responsibility in front of the world. The Kremlin is known for hating this sort of things. So the decision was made to toss the virus to Wuhan and frame the Chinese.

And at that moment an additional opportunity appeared to solve the puzzle of transfer of power in Russia. One month ago, I voiced an opinion that Putin’s inner circle were trying to ditch him and they might imitate “big war” in order to remove him and to earn forgiveness from Washington. Coronavirus made even an imitation unnecessary. Pandemic is going to damage humanity so bad it would be comparable to a bounded nuclear war. If Russian secret services deliberately brought the virus to Wuhan it is a chance for successors to get rid of Putin. The only thing left to be done is to blame him of the crime.

He disappeared somewhere far away from governing the state. And everybody except perhaps his closest entourage is sick and tired of him. If professor Solovei is right and there are persons among his successors who are possessed by Messianic ideas now is the time for them to act. There would be difficult to find moment that is more auspicious.

– It is hard to believe that any person from the Kremlin group is possessed by Messianic ideas. Unlimited influence and, I beg your pardon, really crazy buck are only two things that motivates them in my opinion.

– I, myself, also have doubts about Messianic sentiments in high-profile intelligence officers in Russia. Kleptocracy and Messianic sentiments hardly combine. And history of Soviet-Russian secret services does not give mush of a hope. They appeared to be so strong under Beria. Rock steady! But after his arrest no one has uttered a sound.

On April 2, 2020, Russian TV broadcasted President Vladimir Putin’s video address, and he announced that “regime of days off” was prolonged to the end of April. According to Stopcoronavirus.ru as of April 2 in Russia there were 3548 cjnfirmed COVID-19 cases (771 – confirmed previous day). 30 people have died. Photo: Anatoly Maltsev / ЕРА

In August 1991 in front of notorious Lubyanka building really phantasmagoric picture could be observed. A crowd was dismantling the Dzerzhinsky monument. The process was supervised by a KGB agent under operative pseudonym Felix. Curiously enough he himself had chosen the nickname. At the same time inside the KGB building were people, they were all armed, they carried personal weapon since the summer of 1990. According to the oath they had given, they were to protect the USSR “not sparing their blood and life itself”. Instead, luckily, they sat silently like mice. And we are talking about Messianic complex!

However, I think people skilled in internet researches should scrutinize Russian officials and scientists who visited Wuhan during Military World Games. The discoveries might be crucial.

– If real ground zero for global coronavirus outbreak was virology center near Novosibirsk than why there is no reports on infected and sick with COVID-19 in Siberia?

– The question of COVID-19 victims number in Siberia and in Novosibirsk itself must be raised. Here we enter a domain of guesses because official statistics in Russia just like Chinese one is strongly doubtable. Nonetheless, in an absence of better options let us stick to official data.

In Wuhan approximately 2500 people died in this pandemic with city population over 11 mln people. About 1.5 mln people live in Novosibirsk and density is significantly lower there than in Wuhan. I realize that it is far from strict scientific approach but a rough estimation could be made: if there really was a leak of the coronavirus at Vector facility, casualties in Novosibirsk may be around 250-300 persons.

Keeping in mind Putin’s regime reputation would it be possible to suspect that that their death had been attributed to pneumonia and common cold? I think yes, possible. Besides, in late March Putin ordered to conduct large-scale military “exercises” on localization of mass virus infections contamination. Locations include Novosibirsk region. Russian media reported with reference to Central Military District press office that “special military groups” would be created and chemical protection units would deployed as well as – attention! – RVSN (The Strategic Missile Forces), VKS (The Russian Space Forces), and significant quantity of unnamed equipment. All of it are ordered to Novosibirsk and Kemerovo regions and to Altai Republic. No other country in the world have not organized that kind of exercises to deal with coronavirus.

– What does “unnamed equipment” mean?

– Considering Kremlin experience in Eastern Ukraine unnamed equipment could easily mean mobile crematorium. But RVSN and VKS involvement really raises questions. How could they possibly be useful in overcoming coronavirus? Is not it an imitation of “big war” we were discussing above?