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Sixty-eight years later, there are no Soviet genetic super soldiers, only dangerous laboratories with uncontrolled, unknown pathogens.

The Mainstream Media Story: Accidents Happen…

Furnetics is aware of reports of a laboratory incident at the Anti-Plague Research Institute (RRIAPSM) in Shelekhov, Irkutsk Oblast. While Furnetics has never had a relationship with the Russian Federation or the RRIAPSM and was not involved, we continue to receive media inquiries seeking information and comment. While we have no first-hand knowledge of the specific laboratory incident reported in September 2026, Furnetics is well aware of the history and aims of the RRIAPSM. We are making this statement to clarify our non-involvement but also raise critical biosecurity awareness and reasons to doubt the official account.

Alleged Timeline

Some Russian outlets report a broken test tube on September 25 resulted in a worker at RRIAPSM becoming ill and then dying of an unidentified pathogen. The Moscow Times reported that the worker became ill after laboratory exposure. Insiders report the exposure was not documented, and quarantine protocols were not followed. The infected individual then attended a work-related field trip near the Mongolian border, where they then died. Nearly 200 people have been placed under medical observation in response, and contact tracing efforts are hindered by the rural location and long distances the infected victim traveled.

Russia's health watchdog has described the cause as a pneumonia of unknown origin. A neighboring regional leader, Alexei Tsydenov of the Republic of Buryatia, has described it as possibly "plague". A former head of Rospotrebnadzor, Gennady Onishchenko, has described it as "probably not plague", and added that cold weather should prevent any spread. Not only are these conflicting descriptions, Onishchenko has subsequently disappeared from Russian government websites and current whereabouts are now unknown.

Plague responds well to antibiotics, and the Irkutsk institute has been treating plague since 1934. While Furnetics does not comment on another facility's clinical decisions, we do observe that when a plague institute cannot say whether something is plague, it is reasonable to ask what else it keeps in the building.

Project Zveroboy

The Irkutsk institute studies how plague moves between marmots, ground squirrels and people. In 1958, the Soviet Ministry of Defence noticed that a facility which understood how things cross between species might be able to move other things across as well. The result was Project Zveroboy ("beast-fighter"), a program designed to give soldiers selected animal traits: the cold tolerance of the marmot, the night vision of the steppe polecat, the endurance of the corsac fox.

Zveroboy's working material is a retroviral vector known internally as Strain K. Its documentation does not use the word "plague", and there is no epidemiological or biological connection between the retroviral technology known as Strain K and the bacterium Yersinia pestis which causes plague. To our understanding, sometime in the 1960's, the RRIAPSM's charge was changed from its stated research mission to one that sought to clandestinely develop 'super human' features drawing from the genetic material of other animal species. Documentation referring to these programs that surfaced with the collapse of the Soviet Union were supplemented with assertions all human genome experimental programs were officially closed in 1991. The RRIAPSM's funding was reclassified in 1992 as pandemic preparedness. However, Furnetics has first-hand knowledge that this research continued, as prominent researchers connected to RRIAPSM made overtures to our founder, Dr. Alastair R. Vellacott, and other early Furnetics researchers to acquire their skills, processes, and technologies. To our knowledge, all Furnetics employees approached by the Russian affiliates were resolutely declined. However, the personal papers in our company's archives from Dr. Vellacott and others clearly document the discrepancies between the RRIAPSM plague 'cover stories' and what was shared with our principals.

Our Assessment

Furnetics believes the Shelekhov incident is what a trait program looks like after six decades without access to Furnetics technology.

Strain K is still a 1960s vector. It has no expression stabilizer, no species-boundary checkpoint and no off switch. Our engineers estimate that a modern Zveroboy line, such as the fox-derived K-34 our analysts believe was in use this autumn, would produce a high fever in the host while the vector attempts to rewrite the body. Without stabilization, that attempt can fail. A failed transition would present, to an outside observer, very much like a fast-moving pneumonia of unknown origin. Worse, ribosomal shedding could leak stable bioactive contaminants through excretions of sweat or uric acid, posing unknown risks.

We also note the former health chief's reassurance that cold weather will stop the spread. Cold tolerance was Zveroboy's first design goal. If the program has finally achieved it, cold weather is not where we would place our confidence.