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

“A Poisoned Policy” painted a very grim picture, reporting that GOSNIIOKhT had been literally poisoning Moscow’s citizens by releasing toxic agents directly into the air. Furthermore, the article stated that it was nearly impossible to prevent such dangerous pollution, and that the decontamination solutions that GOSNIIOKhT developed and employed were really not all that effective. GOSNIIOKhT was storing toxic chemicals unsafely, even in open barrels, and the barrels were transported on regular trains to the Shikhany test site, where they were dumped into open pits. GOSNIIOKhT’s leaders knew but had not informed the public that environmental analyses had proved that the facility’s grounds and the water beneath it were contaminated with toxic chemicals. For these reasons, Russians should not trust the important task of destroying chemical weapons to those who made and continued to make them, for these very people had every intention of maintaining their dangerous and deceptive practices.

Even though “A Poisoned Policy” in Moscow News did not name any of the binary agents or give any formulas, I felt that the public and the government would surely take notice this time. Serendipitously, Englund’s article in the Baltimore Sun [84] Will Englund, “Ex-Soviet Scientist Says Gorbachev’s Regime Created New Nerve Gas in ’91,” Baltimore Sun, September 16, 1992. My quote in the piece was: “Americans should know about it.” appeared on the same day, stating that Russia had developed a new chemical agent that was 10 times more toxic than the well-known nerve agent VX. The article also reported that US government officials and independent experts in chemical weapons arms control were surprised and skeptical about these new chemical weapons. [85] Most of the experts that Englund spoke to declined to comment on the record. However, Dr. Lora Lumpe from the Federation of American Scientists commented that “it is unlikely that a nerve agent could be 10 times more lethal than VX gas.”

I was preoccupied with trying to feed my family, unaware that GOSNIIOKhT set in motion the process which culminated in my arrest only five days after “A Poisoned Policy” appeared. The institute’s Permanent Technical Commission assembled to consider whether my article contained secret information. On September 25 th, these five senior officials passed a Top Secret resolution [86] Resolution of the Permanent Technical Commission at GRNIIOKhT September 25, 1992. Top Secret. See Annex 5. claiming I had revealed state secrets learned during the course of my career. GOSNIIOKhT’s Director Petrunin [87] Letter of Director GOSNIIOKhT V.A. Petrunin to A.I. Tselikovsky, Head of the Department for Economic Security of the Security Ministry of the Russian Federation , October 1, 1992, N 1594ss. Top Secret. See Annex 4. sentthis resolution to the KGB with a letter asking it to decide whether or not to initiate criminal proceedings. The KGB, in turn, forwarded a letter which stated that my actions indicated a “criminal offense” along with my case materials to its Investigation Department. [88] Letter of Major General A.I. Tselikovsky to Major General S.D. Balashov, Head of the Investigation Department at the RF Ministry of Security. Top Secret. See Annex 6. Russia’s Deputy Attorney General, Ivan Zemlyanushin, issued a warrant for my arrest on October 19, 1992, “for prevention of further divulging of state secrets and possible intervention in an investigation”.

The Chekists did a lot of work before I was arrested. Later a well informed Russian newspaper reporter told me that two events preceded my arrest. First, at an executive meeting convened in the office of Barannikov, who at that time was the chief of the MB RF (the Ministry of Security of the Russian Federation – the successor to the KGB), four generals out of seven spoke out in favor of my arrest. Second, President Boris Yeltsin visited the MB RF on October 18, 1992. Brief information about this appeared in the press, mentioning that the president had a talk with employees of the MB RF and this talk grew into an expanded meeting of the ministry’s board.

That is why I have reason to suppose that President Yeltsin himself gave “the green light” to the generals for my arrest.

The patience of the Chekists was completely exhausted when, at Lev Fedorov’s invitation, I went to the editorial office of a popular Russian weekly magazine to give an interview on the problems of chemical weapons.

On the morning of October 20, 1992, I met with Fedorov at the Pushkinskaya Metro Station, and we went to meet with Oleg Vishnyakov, from the paper Novoe Vremya ( New Times ). The handsome young correspondent met us in a cramped room, and he got right to work without wasting any time. At first, it seemed to me that he didn’t know very much about the problem of chemical weapons, but during our conversation he got to the heart of the matter quickly, and by the end of the interview we were discussing problems almost on the same level. As we were leaving the Novoe Vremya editor’s office, I noticed a blond man and a blond woman without any characteristic features, next to the bulletin board which displayed the current issue of this magazine. Both blonds were discussing something in a lively manner, and I also noticed that they attentively looked at me…

The interview was published when I was already in Lefortovo Prison. [89] O. V. Vishnyakov, “The Binary Bomb has Exploded”, Novoe Vremya , N 44, p. 4, 1992. Oleg was pressured and even interrogated in the Investigation Department of the MB RF. However, he wasn’t afraid to publish this material, although this article wasn’t supposed to see the light of day, according to the calculations of the Chekists, because it was confiscated and was among the material evidence exhibits of my “crime.” But that was later…

On October 22, 1992, my friend Edward Sarkisyan woke me with an early morning telephone call. Edward said that a few people identifying themselves as KGB agents rang his doorbell and had demanded he open his door. Fortunately, Edward refused and called the police because at that time, criminal gangs roamed the city posing as policemen and KGB. They were forcing Muscovites to open their doors, then robbing and killing them.

Later that morning, with my sons off to kindergarten and school, I was getting ready for my usual trip to the street market near the Sokol Metro Station, where I was selling jeans and sneakers to support my family, when my doorbell rang. I asked who it was, and the answer was devastating, “We are from the Ministry of Security. Open the door!” I remembered Edward’s call earlier that morning, and at first I thought that it was a strange coincidence of fate, so I shouted, “Get out of here at once! I am calling the cops!” To sound more convincing, I added that I had an axe and would defend myself. And indeed, I called the police.

Meanwhile, I already guessed that these people really were from the MB RF, and that they had come to arrest me. They were knocking more insistently, and I was dialing up Mironov and Englund.

I had just enough time to call to the journalist Englund from the Baltimore Sun and tell him that the KGB had come to get me. [90] When Englund and Mironov went outside to drive to my apartment they couldn’t find Englund’s brand new car. It was stolen, despite the special police checkpoint with a guard for this compound where mostly foreigners were living. From behind the door I could hear these men tell my wife Nuria that they were arresting me because of the article in Moscow News. Outraged, Nuria shouted that they were mad, that someone couldn’t be arrested for a newspaper article. At this point, I realized they had already shown Nuria the arrest warrant. As the verbal volleys escalated, the local police arrived and demanded that I open the door immediately. Then they threatened to break it down. They advised me that police in the West would not be so patient. It was clear I could not stall until the media arrived. So, I opened the door because I did not want to have it broken by force.