Books by Anthony Rimmington

This book focuses upon the secret agricultural biological warfare programme codenamed Ekologiya ¿ which was pursued by the Soviet Union from 1958 through to the collapse of the USSR in 1991. It was the largest offensive agricultural biowarfare project the world has ever seen and Soviet anti-crop and anti-livestock weapons had the capability to inflict enormous damage on Western agriculture. Beginning in the early 1970s, there was a new focus within the Soviet agricultural biowarfare programme on molecular biology and the development of genetically modified agents. A key characteristic of the Ekologiya project was the creation of mobilization production facilities. These ostensibly civil manufacturing plants incorporated capacity for production of biowarfare agents in wartime emergency. During the 1990s-2000s, the counter-proliferation efforts undertaken by the US and UK played a major role in preventing the transfer of Ekologiya scientists, technologies and pathogens to Iran and other countries of potential proliferation concern.Anthony Rimmington is a former Senior Research Fellow at Birmingham University¿s Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies, UK. He has published widely on the civil life sciences sector in the post-Soviet states and on the Soviet Union¿s offensive biological warfare programme, including Stalin¿s Secret Weapon: The Origins of Soviet Biological Warfare.

This book aims to privde a detailed survey and analysis of the most important issues in biotechnology in the Soviet Union's successor states as they each attempt to make their own painful transitions to a market economy. It examines both the impact of this branch of science on the economy as a whole and the management of biotechnology research and development (R & D) as well as production. Emphasis is placed on the alternative structures which have emerged during the transitional process. Detailed information is also provided on biotechnology research projects, joint ventures, institutes, and factories.For the area specialist, the book is rich in useful data and analysis while its structure facilitates its use as a handbook by business people in the West and scientists looking for specific information on biotechnology in the former USSR. It will provide those with a more practical orientation with a realistic appraisal of biotechnology in the Eurasian area and some of the problems it faces.

A chilling reassessment of the Soviet Union's advances in biological warfare, and the West's inadvertent contributions.