On Monday 21 September 2009, a delegation from the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and ISTC visited the All-Russian Institute of Phytopathology in Golitsino near to Moscow, to underline the successful completion of ISTC partner project #2685. DTRA had supported the upgrade of various facilities at Golitsino against intrusion or uncontrolled access to laboratories and equipment.

DTRA's Head of Delegation, Major General Randy E. Manner, and senior colleagues met with the institute's Director, Professor Sergey Sanin, and ISTC's Executive Director, Adriaan van der Meer. The delegation visited buildings that had benefited from the upgrades, and at the invitation of the Institute were shown the improvements made to the building's infrastructure and security. 

The renovations and upgrades in the frame of the project align the Institute with international safety requirements. ISTC Executive Director, Adriaan van der Meer, commented "These activities have only been made possible through international scientific cooperation between a number of partners, VNIIF, ISTC and DTRA. What we have seen here today is the evidence that mutual international cooperation in biosafety and biosecurity can be successful." 

In 2005, the institute was first visited by a delegation of senior US representatives, including Barack Obama and Senator Richard G. Lugar. The delegation later monitored some weapons destruction sites in Russia and other former Soviet Republics to review the status and expand the scope of the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program. 

The All Russian Research Institue of Phytopathology, Golitsino (also known as ARRIP or GNU VNIIF), is the leading Russian research institute conducting agricultural research on plant diseases and is actively researching solutions to various problems affecting crop production and growth.