Russia is downplaying a large-scale foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Kuzbass as a less dangerous illness

Authorities in the Kuzbass region secretly culled approximately 4,000 head of cattle at the Vaganovo dairy complex, officially citing nodular dermatitis as the cause. In reality, Russia is attempting to conceal a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in order to avoid international sanctions and a complete halt to exports of livestock products.

This was reported by the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.

The Kremlin is using methods of total animal culling and intimidation of farmers to conceal the true scale of the epizootic. Local residents whose livestock was seized and burned were forbidden from disclosing details under threat of being sent to war against Ukraine. Previously, a similar scheme of disguising foot-and-mouth disease as pasteurellosis was recorded in the Novosibirsk region, where authorities only later acknowledged the true diagnosis.

Due to the cover-up of the outbreak, milk from private farms was no longer accepted, and owners were required to vaccinate their surviving livestock with unidentified drugs without documentation. According to international experts, mass culling over wide areas is a characteristic sign of the fight against foot-and-mouth disease. The Russian leadership is deliberately sacrificing its domestic agricultural sector to preserve its reputation in foreign markets.

It should be noted that in villages in the Novosibirsk region of the Russian Federation, local residents are convinced that the mass culling of their livestock is a planned sabotage operation. 

Russian authorities have destroyed nearly $20 million worth of livestock belonging to Siberian farmers.

The last farming family in the village of Kozikha in the Novosibirsk region, which had long resisted local authorities, agreed to hand over its livestock for culling.