Kazakhstan officials deny that U.S.-funded bioweapons lab was seized by rebels

[mountaineer]

Ian Miles Cheong @ stillgray.substack.com
@stillgray
Now you might be wondering why the US has a massive level 4 bioweapons lab in Kazakhstan. ...

Kazakhstan officials deny that U.S.-funded bioweapons lab was seized by rebels
“The facility is being guarded,” according to the health ministry which is responsible for the Central Reference Laboratory.
    By Ian Miles Cheong | January 10, 2022

Kazakhstan officials are denying that a U.S-funded bioweapons lab has been taken over by rebels in the ongoing unrest that broke out last week. Kazakhstan, Russia’s largest neighbouring country, fell into unrest after rioters across the nation took to the streets over skyrocketing fuel prices.

Home to 19 million people, the country gained its independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union and remains home to some of the largest oil reserves in the world. Despite producing 1.6 million barrels a day, very little of the wealth has trickled down to much of the nation, which reportedly lives on $3,000 a year.  ...

More than 160 people have been killed during the ongoing riots, which has sparked the involvement of its Russian neighbours and other members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which dispatched thousands of peacekeepers to secure the country.  ...

In 2013, Popular Science magazine reported that the U.S. was constructing a high-tech “bubonic plague” lab in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Innocuously named the Central Reference Laboratory, the $102-million facility was purportedly designed to “serve as a central-Asian way station for a global war on dangerous disease.”  ...

As detailed by the New York Times, Kazakhstan remains crucial to the United States’ foreign policy concerns due to tens of billions in investments by Exxon Mobil and Chevron in the oil-rich region of western Kazakhstan.

Read full story at Rebel News

Another Zho Xiden triumph.

[Elderberry]

Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog 1/10/2022

What are my qualifications to write about Kazakhstan? Well, before the situation there boiled over last week:

1.   I knew it was an ex-Soviet republic, so…

2.   I knew it existed before Borat.

3.   I can find it on a map.

4.   I knew it was a majority Muslim nation, which made the Soviet Afghan War Very Unpopular there.

So it’s a one-eyed, squinty, myopic man in the land of the blind sort of thing, but there’s a a whole lot of Kazakh news breaking, so let’s tuck in.
ZeroHedge has additional information on its importance to Russia, some of which I knew and some of which I didn’t.

-----

        …Hunter Biden’s alleged work with Rakishev, claiming he dined regularly with the Kazakh businessman and attempted to facilitate investment for his cash in New York, Washington, DC, and a Nevada mining company.

        But Rakishev, who enjoys close ties to Kazakhstan’s kleptocratic former president, reportedly ran into trouble when Western business partners realized that the opaque origins of his reported $300 million fortune could become a “liability,” the Mail reported.

    This brings up a slew of questions, starting with: What is the nature of the ties between the Biden family and Kazakhstan’s kleptocratic former president and his circle of oligarchs and powerful security officials?

That’s a darn good question.

But today’s Kazakhstan revelations took a strange turn, when the government claimed that a U.S.-funded bio-weapons lab hadn’t been seized by protestors.

Wait. A what???

    Officials in Kazakhstan have denied that a controversial ‘military biological laboratory’ was seized in the recent unrest, which has so far claimed 160 lives since starting on January 2.

    It is not clear if the 164 deaths refer only to civilians or if law enforcement deaths are included, but the number – provided by the health ministry to state news channel Khabar-24 – are a significant rise from previous tallies.

    Kazakh authorities said earlier on Sunday that 16 police or national guard members had been killed.

    Russian media highlighted claims that the US-funded facility near Almaty was compromised, resulting in a possible leak of dangerous pathogens.

More: https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=50243

[Elderberry]

CDC in Central Asia

https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/countries/central-asia/default.htm

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) first established a Central Asia office in Kazakhstan in 1995 and expanded operations ten years later with funds from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). CDC now has offices in four Central Asia countries, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. CDC partners with ministries of health (MOH) to address COVID-19 and HIV, and to strengthen public health emergency management, laboratory, surveillance, and workforce capacity to respond to disease outbreaks.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Why is there a bioweapons lab funded by us in a foreign third world country?

[EdinVA]

Why is there a bioweapons lab funded by us in a foreign third world country?

Fouci wanted to diversify...

[Kamaji]

Why is there a bioweapons lab funded by us in a foreign third world country?

You mean besides China?

[mountaineer]

the U.S. was constructing a high-tech “bubonic plague” lab in Almaty, Kazakhstan

Let's see, we funded the Chinese effort to kill us with Covid-19. We also funded the Kazakh effort to kill us - or someone - with the plague? This seems a bit odd, not to mention hideous.

[GtHawk]

Why is there a bioweapons lab funded by us in a foreign third world country?

Because they can ignore silly little US laws there and develop bio weapons under the guise of developing defenses against bio weapons, with the added bonus of no interference by those pesky congress critters that actually care about doing their jobs.

[Kamaji]

Because they can ignore silly little US laws there and develop bio weapons under the guise of developing defenses against bio weapons, with the added bonus of no interference by those pesky congress critters that actually care about doing their jobs.

Exactly.

[Free Vulcan]

So are these 'rebels' actually rebels, or just a CIA op destroying evidence?

[mountaineer]

Russia Will Establish Bases in Kazakhstan, Increase Influence in Central Asia
By Yuri Vanetik Friday, 14 January 2022 05:21 PM
Newsmax


Many never heard of Kazakhstan until actor Sacha Baron Cohen mocked it in his mostly "mockumentary" 2006 comedy, "Borat."

I worked with oil and gas companies and political leaders in Kazakhstan in the 1990s and early 2000s, thus this writer knows the country well.

Last time I visited Kazakhstan was almost 15 years ago. Yet, I still have many friends from there who have shared their insight into the recent uprising and its possible ramifications.

Based on my experience and assessment, America should pay close attention to what happens now in this Central Asian nation. ...

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev — arguably until now — was little more than Nazarbayev’s puppet. He claims the protests are secretly backed by outsiders like the Islamic State.

He turned to a Russian-led security bloc for help to rid the nation of these alleged foreign terrorist. Tokayev sacked the government, declared a state of emergency, ordered his military to shoot demonstrators without warning, shut down the country’s internet (including WhatsApp, Telegram, Chinese app WeChat, and Facebook). ...

Why is Kazakhstan’s uprising important?

Kazakhstan is part of Russia’s spheres of influence.

The military intervention by the Collective Security Treaty Organization is the first time that its protection clause has been invoked, an act that has sweeping consequences for geopolitics.

This engagement is an opportunity for Russia. The crisis in Kazakhstan may upset the balance of power in Eurasia. Major instability there is both a threat and an opportunity for the Kremlin.

Just as is the case with Ukraine, Kazakhstan has a large ethnic Russian minority. ...

Full story