Because the Russians’ biological weapons program was a clear violation of the BWC treaty, Annie Jacobsen explains (in Biological War), the Soviets went to great lengths to disguise it:
Igor Domaradskij was the first scientific director at Obolensk, and the first chief of the plague genetics program there. In his hand-typed writings (shared with us by Milton Leitenberg), Domaradskij reveals one such facade.
“Everything [was designed] to mislead any foreign intelligence,” Domaradskij writes, and that the Obolensk weapons facility was built to resemble an insane asylum, including actors dressed as mentally ill patients roaming the grounds. “[ F] rom space, it looked like some kind of sanatorium, with the convalescents walking about in pyjamas [sic] or playing volleyball!”
A civilian front organization was created to appear as if it produced vaccines and other medical countermeasures. The program was so highly classified that its name—Biopreparat, meaning “biological preparations” in English—was personally chosen by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, back in 1973.
[…]
The main building at Obolensk was an eight-story structure, its exterior dominated by glass. The floors were organized by the deadly pathogen being researched: anthrax, tularemia, glanders, plague. Top secret meetings like the one in 1989 took place in a large auditorium near the center of the building, austere and without windows. “We were not allowed to bring briefcases or bags inside the room,” Alibek recalled. Any notes written down during briefings were confiscated by security guards. If a scientist wanted to see their own notes later, they had to get special permission.
When I was a child and I had all of the time in the world to be bored getting driven around in the backseat of a car, I used to look out at large buildings with strange corporate names and wonder what they did in them. I’d concoct stories about secret government programs, or occult meetings, or weapons research, etc. Then I’d imagine sneaking into them and discovering their nefarious schemes.
As an adult I’ve come to realize, my boredom induced imaginative ramblings may have been closer to the truth than I suspected. The world is often what it appears, but more often than we suspect, it’s just not.
The best place to hide has always been in plain sight.