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

What Dr. Mirzayanov did must have infuriated some influential members of the Russian military-industrial complex, although it was apparently not illegal under Russian law at that time. Therefore, authorities prevailed upon Prime Minister Chernomyrdin to sign a retroactive secret decree in March 1993 to make Mirzayanov’s allegations a crime. It hardly seems likely that a government supposedly commited to rule of law would hold a citizen liable for violating a decree not made public. Incidentally, the new Russian Constitution quite sensibly forbids using secret decrees as basis for criminal charges.

Human rights activists and members of the scientific community have come to Dr. Mirzayanov’s defense, both in terms of the legality of his trial and with respect to the substance of Dr. Mirzayanov’s allegations that Russia is continuing chemical weapons testing. Dr. Joshua Lederberg, president of the New York Academy, has called for the charges against Dr. Mirzayanov to be dropped. “Otherwise”, he notes, “we must conclude that Mirzayanov was telling the truth and a whole new class of deadly binary chemical weapons was created and that the Russian Government is reverting to the old Soviet-style practice of presecuting dissident scientists.” I would note also that the respected Russian scientist and academic Roald Sagdeev has written that “the trial of Mirzayanov can only bring irreparable moral harm to the policies of the Russian Government and indeed the entire cause of peace.”

The administration has also been following this case closely. Ambassodor Pickering in Moscow has called it “more than strange and more than usual that someone could be either prosecuted or persecuted for telling the truth about an activity which is contrary to a treaty obligation of a foreign government.” I’d say that’s putting it mildly, considering the nature of the treaty obligations.

The Mirzayanov trial involves more than the fate of one man. It is foreboding indication of the direction toward which Russia may be heading in the post-cold war era. Who is in charge here, civilians operating under the rule of law, or a military-industrial complex that can pull secret regulations out of a hat when challenged?

I hope that good will, common sense, and the rule of law prevail in Moscow. Many conscientious Russians, in and out of government, are seeking justice for Dr. Mirzayanov. The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, of which I am pleased to serve as chairman, is proud to join in their efforts. Along with Commission co-chairman Representative Steny Hoyer, I have written to Ambassador Lukin and asked him to convey our deepest concerns about the Mirzayanov trial to President Yeltsin. I hope that others will join us. Library of Congress . http://www.thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin

Moscow

March 11, 1994

A.N. Ilyushenko Acting Attorney General of the Russian Federation has considered the materials of criminal case No 62-92 that were sent from the Moscow City Court for conducting an additional investigation,

From 1965 until January 1992 V. S. Mirzayanov held various scientific positions at the State Russian Science Research Institute for Organic Chemistry and Technology (GRNIIOKhT), and from 1986 until 1990 he was head of the Department for Foreign Technical Counterintelligence. According to his job responsibilities he was informed about the system of organization, the major trends, and some of the results of the scientific-research and the experimental-design work in the area of the development of chemical weapons.

After he was dismissed from the institute in January 1992 due to staff reductions, Mirzayanov made an attempt to draw the attention of the public to the possible ecological danger of the utilization of chemical agents. With this goal in mind, he prepared materials for publication and gave interviews to the various members of the mass media about the problems of the development of toxic chemicals in Russia.

According to the materials of the criminal case, on September 16, 1992 issue 38 of the weekly newspaper Moscow News and the American newspaper the Baltimore Sun , as well as issue 44 of October 1992 of the magazine Novoe Vremya published articles and the interview of Mirzayanov “Poisoned Policies,” “Former Soviet Scientist Says that the Regime of Gorbachev Created a New Paralytic-Nerve Agent in 1991,” and “The Binary Bomb has Exploded,” in which it was reported that a new chemical agent had been created in the former Soviet Union and new binary weapons had been developed based on it.

These articles served as a basis for criminal proceedings charging Mirzayanov with a crime stipulated by Part 1, Article 75 of the RSFSR Criminal Code.

During the preliminary and court investigations Mirzayanov pleaded not guilty to disclosing state secrets and explained that he had only intended to warn the public, by way of a general outline, of the threat and possible consequences of the creation of chemical weapons.

According to the conclusion of the expert commission-specialists dated March 16, 1993, which was presented in the preliminary investigation, information published in the articles constituted state secrets, according to “List of Major Information of state secrecy” approved by the Resolution No 1121-387 of the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers dated December 3, 1980.

At the same time, during the repeated examination in court, the specialists V.V. Smirnitsky and N.I. Chugunov explained that the analysis of normative documents allowed these questions to be studied in more detail. In the opinion of these experts, not one of the publications based on the materials presented by Mirzayanov or his interview contained specific information that constituted state secrets. Concepts and terms: chemical weapons, chemical agents, binary weapons, their development and production were excluded from the list of state secrets in 1984. In the publications nothing specific was disclosed about the newest achievements in this area of science and technology, or the factual data about the results of scientific research, experimental-design work, or field testing of the samples of chemical weapons, information which really constitutes state secrets, according to the above-mentioned “List…”

Thus, Mirzayanov appeared as a bearer of secret information, but didn’t disclose specific information of state secrecy and can’t be criminally responsible, according to Part 1, Article 75 of the RSFSR Criminal Code.

Moreover, according to Articles 15 and 29 of the Constitution of Russia, unpublished normative acts, which “The List…” refers to, and due to the absence of federal law “about the lists of information of state secrecy” the legal basis for Mirzayanov’s possible criminal responsibility for communicating information about the development of new chemical weapons is precluded.

Under such circumstances, the resolution of the panel of judges for criminal cases at the Moscow City Court dated February 14, 1994 about returning the current criminal case for conducting an additional investigation doesn’t entail the necessity of fulfilling any additional investigation procedures, because the absence of grounds for attaching criminal responsibility to V. S. Mirzayanov has been established with sufficient completeness by the preliminary and court investigations.

Based on the aforementioned and being guided by Clause 2, Article 5, Part 1, Article 208, and Article 209 of the RSFSR Criminal and Procedrual Code,

1. To dismiss the criminal case, according to which Vil Sultanovich Mirzayanov born on March 9, 1935 was charged with committing a crime stipulated by Part 1 Article 75 of the RSFSR Criminal Code, because of the absence of corpus delicti in his actions and to inform the interested people.