As, if that was not enough of a problem! Since the early 1950s, the Soviet Union had maintained a top secret bio-weapons facility on the island of Vozrozhdenie in the middle of the Aral Sea--well, it used to be an island. At the facility, it is now clear that Soviet scientists developed weapons-grade pathogens and conducted open-air testing of virulent bacteria such as anthrax, plague, small pox and others