A deadly Soviet threat lives on

Down a street from where children play, just yards away from homes and vegetable gardens, the Plague Research Institute in Kazakhstan’s commercial capital is a terrorist’s dream. Under the guise of civilian research, the institute collected and housed thousands of deadly germs during the Soviet era to be used against the United States in a war. Until recently, the facility was completely unguarded. “THE PLAGUE INSTITUTE is a terrorist’s treasure,” said Andy Weber, a representative of the Pentagon’s threat reduction program, a U.S. body charged with preventing and responding to threats against the United States. It’s not difficult to see why terrorists might target the Plague Research Institute for their wares.Recently, Weber strolled into a dimly lit room in one of the facility’s buildings. He opened the door of one of nine rumbling Soviet refrigerators revealing a horror inside: test-tubes containing samples of anthrax, tularemia, and plague, some dating back to the 1940s, all alive.Anthrax is 90 percent lethal. In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev said that much of the Soviet Union’s past offensive biological and even nuclear research in his country is still a closely held secret. Nazarbayev said he would like to see more transparency from Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on the question of existing biological weapons.