Monkeys caught in crossfire of Russian politics

From space travellers to post-traumatic stress victims, primates at Abkhazia's research institute follow the fortunes of their rulers JANE ARMSTRONG From Monday's Globe and Mail SUKHUMI, GEORGIA — Only the monkeys seem oblivious to the destruction that rained for years on this once renowned research institute. Limber-limbed macaques swing from the rafters of their narrow cages like miniature acrobats, while the bigger baboons sit on their large behinds, blinking at tourists, whose admission tickets help pay their room and board. When it opened 81 years ago, the Institute of Experimental Pathology and Therapy was the first primate testing centre on the planet. For decades afterward, the best scientists from across the Soviet Union came to Sukhumi to research cures for polio, typhus, encephalitis and cholera. Two of its most... [read full story]