Vozrozhdeniye island is located in the Aral Sea approximately 1,300 miles (2,092.15 km) to the east of Moscow. The island was used as biological weapons test site for the former Soviet Union. Now decommissioned, the island has served for decades as the repository of a large quantity of spores of Bacillus anthracis, the bacterial agent of anthrax, and other disease-causing bacteria and viruses.

Vozrozhdeniye island translates as Renaissance island. The island was used for open-air testing of bioweapons. The sparse vegetation on the island, remote location, and summer temperatures that reach 140° F (60° C) reduced the chances that escaping bioweapons would survive. Besides the testing of anthrax bioweapons, Soviet archives indicate that the microbial agents of tularemia, plague, typhoid, and possibly smallpox were used for experimentation.

The biological warfare agents buried on the island were supposed to have been destroyed following the signing of a treaty with...