“…The SIT1 spoligotype is characteristic of the Beijing/W family, which is known for its frequent association with MDR, outbreaks and high emergence worldwide. The prevalence of Beijing isolates in Russia, both in prisons and in the community, and the high rate of MDR typical for this group have been recognized in a number of studies [5,6,23,[25][26][27]. Our results are consistent with this observation and demonstrate that the Beijing genotype plays an important role in the epidemiology of MDR-TB in civilian population of this high incidence region of the North-Western Russia.…”