In 2018, Vladimir Putin announced a $1.7 billion genetic program, comparing the potential of genetic engineering to a new “nuclear bomb”. The following year, the president’s alleged eldest daughter, Maria Vorontsova, joined the program’s advisory council and, this week, state-owned oil giant Rosneft got involved. Russian online publication The Bell looks with some skepticism at the players behind this program.
The main aim of the program is a genetic analysis of the Russian people, the BBC reported. The program plans to collect genetic material from 100,000s of Russians to find out if they can identify any characteristic genes, and whether they can be engineered.
The program aims to prepare legislative changes required for such an endeavor. Another goal is to build genetic research centers with Rosneft, a Russian oil major, providing the funds for the first of these — up to $1 billion, according to the BBC.
The Kurchatov Institute in Moscow is leading the program. A very secretive organization, traditionally focused on nuclear technology, the institute reports directly to the government. It built the first atomic reactor in Europe and the world’s first thermonuclear bomb but, over the last 15 years, it has merged with several other major research institutes, including ones studying genetics.
The institute is led by Mikhail Kovalchuk, an influential proponent of genetics in service of the state and the brother of billionaire Yuri Kovalchuk, one of Putin’s close friends.
In 2015, Kovalchuk said in a speech that foreign forces were trying to interfere “in the evolutionary process” to create “a servant person”, an entirely new type of human. Kovalchuk clearly had the USA in mind, and his speech caused quite a stir. A source in the genetic technologies sector told The Bell that the idea for Russia to prioritize genetics comes from Kovalchuk.
Kovalchuk sees genetics as a “matter of national security” and believes that gay people and families without children are “perceptions in the mind that go against nature”.
Vorontsova is widely believed to be Putin’s daughter although the relationship has never been officially confirmed. An endocrinologist by training, Vorontsova was appointed by Putin himself to the genetic program’s council in April 2019.
This article, which first appeared in The Bell’s newsletter, is presented here with minor adjustments. The full Russian-language version can be found here.
