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

Sergei Mostovshchikov, “The Case of Vil Mirzayanov: the Trial has Begun After All”, Izvestia , February 5, 1994.

Alexander Gordeyev, “Reporter Refuses a Role in Closed Chemist Trial”, The Moscow Times , February 9, 1994.

Amy Knight, “Yeltsin’s KGB. Back to the Bad Old Days in Moscow?” Washington Post , February 13, 1994.

Carey Scott, “Chemist Evidence ‘Falsified’”, The Moscow Times , February 10, 1994.

Valeri Rudnev, “Sentence should be Passed on the Mirzayanov Case”, Izvestia , February 9, 1994.

As a typical Soviet bureaucrat, he was not in any rush to fulfill a given order. This could be explained by the state of turmoil in the Attorney General’s Office in those days. Duma began discussing amnesty for all the participants of the October 1993 Coup attempt against Yeltsin. President Yeltsin and his administration were furious about this action by Duma, and they prompted Alexey Kazannik to declare that he would not disobey Duma’s resolution, which he was obliged to enforce. As an honest individual, Kazannik refused to violate Russian law, and decided to immediately resign after executing Duma’s Resolution N 65-1G about amnesty, on February 23, 1994. My trial and Kazannik’s saga coincided, creating some options for Pankratov to procrastinate with his order. Nevertheless, one of Kazannik’s last decisions was to order me to be freed from jail.

SIPRI was established in 1966 as a tribute to Sweden’s peaceful history. This venerable international research organization focuses on various ways to curtail warfare and keep the peace, including numerous publications on the development and use of poison gas and methods to eliminate chemical weapons. For more, see www.sipri.org.

The KGB intentionally omitted Will Englund’s article from my case materials, “Russia is Still Doing Secret Work on Chemical Weapons,” Baltimore Sun, October 18, 1992, in which he gave information about the development of a series of Novichok agents, and details about Andrey Zheleznyakov’s poisoning, with comments by Dr. Yevgeny Vedernikov, who prolonged his life. Moreover, Shkarin didn’t even mention Andrey’s name in any documents, despite the telephone conversations taped from my home phone (8 big cassettes were attached to my case), in which I asked him to give an interview to Will Englund, and then later to Oleg Vishnyakov, the reporter from Novoe Vremya. Another colleague of mine, Dr. Eduard Sarkisyan was brought to Lefortovo on October 22, 1992 for interrogation. He didn’t give any information about the Novichok program. According to one of well informed reporter, it was exactly Andrey’s first interview which pushed the KGB to arrest me trying to prevent further revelations about the plot of the Chemical Military Complex. See also ref. 40.

Valery Yakov, “The Mirzayanov Case Continues to Arouse Protest”, Izvestia , February 10, 1994.

Sergei Shargorodsky (The Associated Press), “Court Halts Trial of Weapons Whistle Blower”, The Moscow Tribune, February 15, 1994.

Vladimir Nazarov, “The Case – to the Additional Investigation, Vil Mirzayanov – to Jail”, Kuranty , February 15, 1994.

“Jailed Scientist Awaits a 2d Trial in Moscow”, New York Times International , February 16, 1994.

Deborah Stead, “Prosecutors File Motion to Halt Scientist’s Trial”, Baltimore Sun , February 11, 1994.

Richard Seltzer, “Charges Against Russian Chemist Undergo Review”, Chemical and Engineering News , February 21, 1994.

Wendy Sloan, “Trial of Russian Scientist Provides First Test for New Constitution. Chemist Tried for Divulging Military Secrets, but Under What Set of Laws?”, Christian Science Monitor , February 15, 1994.

Valeri Rudnev, “Mirzayanov’s Case was Sent for Additional Investigation and Scientist – to the Jail”, Izvestia , February 16, 1994.

Vil Mirzayanov, “There are no Hellenes or Jews in Jail”, Moscow News , February 27, 1994.

Konstantin Katanyan, “Jailers at “Matrosskaya Tishina Beat People Half to Death. Vil Mirzayanov Discloses Secrets of the Investigation Isolator Cell Number 1”, Golos , March 7-13, 1994.

Leonard Nikishin, Leonid Sharov, “Vil Mirzayanov: Jail Brings you Closer to the Truth”, Obschaya Gazetta , March 4-10, 1994.

Adam Tanner, “Chemist Blasts Jail as “Hitlerite”, The Moscow Times , February 24, 1994.

Marie Jego, “Des Prisons Russes Toujours Sovietiques”, Le Monde , April 30, 1994.

Valeri Rudnev, “Non-Judicial Resolution was Enforced”, Izvestia , February 23, 1994.

“Russia Released Scientist Imprisoned for Disclosure”, Washington Post , 24 February, 1994.

Michael S. Serrill, “Exposing a Devilish Gas”, Time (International Edition), February 21, 1994.

Richard Stone, “Russia Seen Poised to Drop Prosecution of Chemist”, Science , 25 February, 1994, vol. 263, p. 1083-1084.

Kathy Lally, “The KGB’s Power: In Some Ways, Little has Changed”, Baltimore Sun , March 6, 1994.

Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines corpus delicti as the facts constituting a crime.

“RESOLUTION on the termination of the criminal case”, Moscow, March 11, 1994. See Annex 78.

Sergei Mostovshchikov, “The Mirzayanov Case was Terminated for Absence of Corpus Delicti”, Izvestia March 12, 1994.

Vladimir Nazarov, “The Investigation is Over – Forget About it, Mr. Mirzayanov?!” Kuranty , March 12, 1994.

Richard Seltzer, “All Charges Dropped Against Russian Chemist”, Chemical and Engineering News , March 21, 1994, p. 6.

David Wise, “Novichok on Trial”, New York Times , March 12, 1994.

Editorial: “Chemistry and the Life of Mirzayanov”, Moscow News , March 13, 1994.

Congressional Record. Proceedings and Debates of the 103d Congress, First Session. March 15, 1994, v. 140, N 28. S. 2958. See Annex 77.