‘Ethnic’ weapons and immortality How spying charges against a U.S. citizen reflect the Russian authorities’ fear and obsession with genetics
Until Friday, Russia had kept its espionage case against U.S. citizen Gene Spector entirely under wraps. But today’s statement from the FSB — that Spector was convicted for collecting information to help the Pentagon develop a “genetic screening system” for Russians — has done little to clarify the situation. What exactly Spector is accused of remains a mystery, but fears of outsiders exploiting Russia’s “unique” genetic material are nothing new. The Kremlin’s fixation on the idea that scientific advances could either threaten or preserve Russia’s genetic legacy stretches back over a decade. To unpack Vladimir Putin’s complicated love-hate relationship with genetics — and what it might have to do with Spector’s conviction — we spoke to an expert from Meduza’s Razbor (“Explainers”) team.
For security reasons, this article refers to Meduza’s correspondent simply as “the expert.”
In the summer of 2023, Russia indicted Gene Spector, a Russian-born U.S. citizen, on espionage charges. At the time, Spector was already serving a 3.5-year prison sentence for allegedly facilitating a bribe to an aide of former Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich. This time, however, authorities revealed no details about the case. Spector’s trial was held behind closed doors, and even at his sentencing this December — where he was handed 15 years in a high-security prison — the court only published the introductory and dispositive parts of the verdict, citing the case’s classified nature.
A few days later, however, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) released a statement accusing Spector of collecting “biotechnological and biomedical information” and transferring it to the Pentagon to help the U.S. develop a “high-speed genetic screening system for Russia’s population.” What exactly the FSB means by this is anyone’s guess.
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Before his initial arrest, Spector served as chairman of the board of directors at Medpolymerprom Group, a Russian medical supply company specializing in cancer treatments. How this connects to the FSB’s claims — if it even does — is unclear. In medical contexts, genetic screening typically refers to identifying genetic disorders or assessing the risk of developing them. But, once again, the specifics of what the FSB is alleging remain a mystery.
According to Meduza’s expert, Russian authorities and intelligence agencies have been fixated on potential threats related to the collection of biological samples and data for well over a decade — at least since 2007. That spring, the Federal Customs Service imposed a ban on exporting biological samples from Russia, and the FSB began inspecting companies conducting clinical trials for Western firms. At the time, Kommersant sources linked this sudden crackdown to a report presented by then-FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev to President Vladimir Putin, warning of alleged Western efforts to develop “genetic-biological weapons” targeting Russia’s population.
The ban was later lifted, only to be reinstated during another wave of “anti-genetics” fervor among Russia’s leadership in 2017, Meduza’s expert notes. This particular wave of paranoia about genetic data appears to have been fueled by a report from the state propaganda outlet RT about a U.S. government tender for RNA and synovial fluid samples from Russia, reportedly for Pentagon research purposes.
That same year, during a Council for Civil Society and Human Rights meeting, Putin voiced concerns over foreign intelligence agencies collecting biological samples from Russians: “Do you know that biological material is being gathered across the country? From various ethnic groups and people living in different geographic areas of the Russian Federation. The question is — why are they doing this? They’re doing it deliberately and systematically.”
The theory that the West was developing “ethnic” weapons against Russians was further amplified by figures like Mikhail Kovalchuk, a key architect of Russia’s federal genetics research program, Meduza’s expert says. Over time, the narrative evolved to include new claims about biolabs in Ukraine and weaponized mosquitoes, eventually becoming a staple of Russian propaganda and rhetoric from Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s radiation, chemical, and biological defense forces. (Kirillov, notably, was recently assassinated.) The Russian Defense Ministry has also frequently invoked the idea of biological and “ethnic” weapons, allegedly developed by Ukraine, to stoke public fears during the ongoing war.
Indeed, the Russian authorities’ obsession with genetics seems to stem from own their fears, no matter the focus. Alongside concerns about “genetic weapons,” Putin appears fixated on combating aging and extending life. In early 2024, he announced a new “national project” aimed at “preserving the health” of Russian citizens — presumably, starting with his own.