Вил Мирзаянов - State Secrets - An Insider's Chronicle of the Russian Chemical Weapons Program

I think that by publishing in the article “Poisoned Policies” I gave no specific information that would characterize the composition or properties of the new chemical agents or the binary weapons based on them, the location of the institute-designer, or the site of production and testing of the new chemical agents. I didn’t give any concrete facts about the composition or properties of the new chemical agents. This is why I think that I didn’t disclose any state secret in the above-mentioned article.

Question by the defender, Leonid G. Belomestnykh: Did you realize that by publishing the article you included information not suitable for publication, and do you think that in this way you disclosed state secrets as the investigation claims?

Answer: I presented information in the article that conceptually has to do with the strictly secret topic of the development, testing, and production of a new chemical agent and the creation of binary weapons based on it. I didn’t cite a single line from classified documents in my article. This is why I think that I didn’t disclose any state secrets in the article “Poisoned Policies.”

I have read the interrogation transcript. It appears that my testimony has been transcribed accurately in the report. I don’t want to make any corrections or additions to the report.

Suspect

Vil S. Mirzayanov

Defender

Leonid G. Belomestnykh

The suspect was interrogated and the transcript was compiled by

Senior Investigator of the Investigation Department

at the MB RF,

Captain of Justice

V. Shkarin

Top Secret

Moscow

October 22, 1992

Investigator of the Investigation Department at the MB RF, Senior Lieutenant of Justice Martynenko and Junior Investigator of the same department, Lieutenant of Justice Zenkov ---------------- with the participation of employees of the MB RF A.T. Svetin, I.V. Belyanin [former employee of GRNIIOKhT—V.M.] and A.A. Dmitriev [my former colleague at GRNIIOKhT who worked with Bogomazov—V.M.] searched the premises of Lev A. Fedorov, Moscow, ul. Profsoyuznaya, d. 8, korp. 2, kv. 83:

1. German Mitrofanovich Mosyakin [he signed the resolution of the Permanent Technical Commission and wrote a letter about my functional responsibilities – V.M.]. Permanent address: Moscow, Orekhovy proezd, d. 39, korp. 2, kv. 342, and

2. Ivan Ivanovich Surinsky [Deputy Chief of the Security Department at GRNIIOKhT—V.M.]. Permanent address: Moscow, ul. Sayanskaya, d. 2, kv. 54. The search was conducted on the basis of the ordinance about conducting searches dated October 20, 1992 following the requirements stipulated in Articles 169-171 of the RSFSR Criminal and Procedural Code. The search was conducted in the presence of Lev Aleksandrovich Fedorov and witnesses.

The above mentioned people were informed that they could observe all the actions of the investigator and make statements regarding any of his actions. Witnesses were also advised that Article 135 of the RSFSR Criminal Code stipulates their obligation to attest to the fact, content, and results of the search.

The search started at 7.30 A.M.

Before the search started Lev A. Fedorov was offered the chance to voluntarily submit items and documents pertaining to the case as indicated in the ordinance. After this Lev A. Fedorov produced two manuscripts in blue ink. One document is 7 (seven) pages long. The other document is 6 (six) pages long. Fedorov also produced two copies of the weekly “Moscow News” issues N 38 in Russian and N 39 in English. After this Lev A. Fedorov submitted another document that was 4 (four) pages long, a manuscript in blue ink.

Lev A. Fedorov explained that Vil Sultanovich Mirzayanov had given him three manuscripts. Based on these documents, Fedorov and Mirzayanov prepared articles to be published in the weekly “Moscow News.”

After Lev A. Fedorov voluntarily produced the documents and newspapers, his apartment wasn’t searched [underlined by me—V.M.].

Three documents are packed in a paper envelope and sealed with stamp N 2 for documents of the Investigation Department of the KGB of the U.S.S.R., which is attested by signatures of the investigator, Fedorov, and the witnesses.

The search finished at 8.00 A.M. We______ have read the report of the search.

The report is true and accurate.

We have no comments regarding the search and content of the report.

The person whose apartment was searched ___________________

The search was conducted and the report was written by

Investigator of the Investigation Department at the RF Ministry of Security, Senior Lieutenant of Justice S.M. Martynenko ______________________________

Junior Investigator at the same department, Lieutenant of Justice I.E. Zenkov ____________________________________________

Top Secret

Moscow

October 22, 1992

Lieutenant Colonel of Justice Fanin, head of the Investigation Department at the Ministry of Security of the Russian Federation, in his office of the Investigation Department at the MB RF, observing requirements stipulated in Articles 72-74, 157, 158, and 160 of the RSFSR Criminal and Procedural Code interrogated the witness, Lev Aleksandrovich Fedorov, born on June 10, 1936 in Moscow, Chuvash, citizen of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Chemical Sciences, Leading Research Assistant at the Institute for Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences (work tel. 137-49-30), married. Permanent address:

Moscow, ul. Profsoyuznaya, 8, korp. 2, kv. 83,

(home tel. 129-05-96)

Passport series XV-MYu N 608591 issued by Police Department 134, Moscow, on July 1, 1978.

It was explained to the witness that, according to Articles 73 and 74 of the RSFSR Criminal and Legal Code, he can be interrogated regarding any circumstances that have been established on the facts of a case and must give truthful evidence: produce all information known to him regarding this case and answer questions. Additionally, I was informed that, according to Articles 141-commentary and 160 of the RSFSR Criminal Code, after testifying I have the right to familiarize myself with the transcript of my testimony, to require insertions and amendments to the transcript, and also to apply to have the interrogation recorded.

I have been advised in advance about the responsibility stipulated by Article 180 of the RSFSR Criminal Code for refusing or evading giving evidence and about the responsibility stipulated by Article 181 of RSFSR Criminal Code for giving deliberately false evidence.

The interrogation started at 9.45 A.M.

The interrogation finished at 1.50 P.M.

Witness Lev A. Fedorov was asked to give a full account of the circumstances about which he was called in for interrogation. He testified the following:

I speak Russian fluently and will testify in this language. I met Vil Sultanovich Mirzayanov two months ago. He called me, said that his name was Vil Sultanovich Mirzayanov, and asked if I had written an article for the newspaper “Sovershenno Sekretno.” I don’t remember the title of the article. Probably, “Delayed Death.” It discussed chemical weapons the way I, a Doctor of Science, understand the problem. I confirmed that I had written this article. When Mirzayanov called me, I remembered at once that he was the author of the article “Inversion” published in autumn of 1991 in the newspaper “Kuranty.” This article was interesting to me then, so I remembered its author. This is why I agreed to meet with Mirzayanov. I went to his home. When we met, Mirzayanov said that my article was interesting. Since he worked at the State Russian Science Research Institute for Organic Chemistry and Technology, we could have common interests in the area of chemical disarmament. I expressed my satisfaction with the article “Inversion.” From my talk with Mirzayanov I understood that he knew the information revealed in the article “Inversion” from his work in the above-mentioned institute. During the conversation Mirzayanov stressed that the information didn’t constitute state secrets. Additionally, the very fact that the article was published in “Kuranty” was evidence to me that the information written there didn’t appear to be state secrets.