Isolates of FMD virus occurring in the former USSR are in a genetically related group characteristic of the Indian sub-continent. In this example, a particular Russian isolate, O/1685/Moscow/95, was found by sequence analysis to belong to the group characteristic of viruses recovered in the region of Hong Kong and the Philippines. The origin of this disease outbreak was thus traced to a distant virus source and, by further investigation, could be correlated with movements of meat products from one region to another.