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

After I signed the transcript of the interrogation, the investigator asked me to look through the materials that would be sent to the People’s Court, to consider my complaint about my illegal arrest. I already knew everything in the transcript about “the suspect getting acquainted with materials to be submitted to the court” (Case N 62, volume 1, p. 186-187), except for the letter of the Investigation Department to the chairman of the court.

On October 30 the investigator called me in again. There were two other people in the office besides Shkarin. One of them was relatively young, with an intelligent face. He was obviously embarrassed that he had come to such a terrible place, since he was such a well-bred and decent person. I rather liked him. The investigator introduced him as Prosecutor Belash, and it was his job was to monitor and oversee the legality of the KGB’s actions.

The second person who appeared was a corpulent elderly man with gray hair and reddish veins on his face, which showed that his life hadn’t been boring. The captain said that this was the lawyer Vasiliev, who would be present at that day’s presentation of the official indictment, if I had no objection. Vasiliev said that he had served in the military all his life. He had been a military prosecutor, and currently he worked as a defense attorney. Frankly, I can say that right from the start I didn’t like him. Even outwardly he seemed to be a strict proponent of Soviet ways. Still, I thought it would be awkward if I objected to his presence at the procedure, since he had come all that way. I would be showing distrust without even knowing him. I knew that in any case I wouldn’t use his services. I knew already that any time the KGB was offering me something, it would be necessary to refuse it. Otherwise, I would fall into another one of the Chekists’ traps.

At the end of the interrogation, when the investigator was finishing up the transcript, Vasiliev took the latest issue of the Communist newspaper Pravda out of his briefcase and started reading it. Then I clearly understood who they were trying to palm off on me.

My lawyer Asnis wasn’t allowed to be admitted to my case which dragged on, because he flatly refused to sign any nondisclosure agreement about state secrets. That was obligatory for getting access to classified documents such as my case materials. Shkarin told me about this in a hurt voice, as if he were complaining that Asnis was too capricious. Taking advantage of the presence of a young prosecutor, I delivered a monologue for about five minutes. I said indignantly that it was a serious provocation against the democratic forces in the country and that the disgusting old KGB still reigned in society. I voiced my exasperation about my arrest and imprisonment, which were absolutely unjustified. After all, everything could be investigated without keeping me in jail.

I think it was a good way for me to vent my feelings. The lawyer Vasiliev tried to calm me down by saying that as time passed I would become accustomed to jail, and I would feel better. “Son of a bitch!” I said to myself, and I was sorry that I couldn’t say it to his face.

During my monologue, the prosecutor nodded approvingly as if encouraging me to use even harsher expressions. He even took out a notepad from his huge briefcase and wrote something down. Finally he won my sympathy. Later when I was taken to my cell again and told my cellmates about this prosecutor, Yavitsky burst out laughing. He said that I understood nothing about people, as the prosecutor had his job only because he was a good actor. I was shocked! Incredible! Was it possible to win somebody’s favor in these jungles of lawlessness without saying a single word, by “talking” only with your gestures? Yes, evidently Belash was a real professional.

Later Shkarin said that he would present me with an indictment that day. Consequently, my status “was elevated”, because up to that point I was considered just a detained suspect. The indictment repeated the text of the resolution of the Permanent Technical Commission at GRNIIOKhT almost word for word. This meant that there wouldn’t be anything new from the prosecution. In fact, what else could they invent? The investigator had to build my “case” around this resolution. He had nothing else to work with. That’s how it turned out in the end. However, at that time Shkarin had been elaborating the formal aspects of my case, to give some weight to his creation. As Professor Kurochkin liked to say, he was “making candy from shit.”

I will cite a passage from the transcript of the interrogation that followed after the indictment was pronounced:

“Question: Do you plead guilty to the charges of the indictment?

Answer: I plead entirely not guilty to the charges of the indictment[I will write later about how Andrey Arnold “translated” this sentence into English for Gale Colby. V.M.]

Question: What explanation can you give concerning the charges brought against you?

Answer: I qualify this indictment as a political indictment that is making an appeal to intimidate everyone who objects to the leaders of the military-industrial complex continuing to pursue their own policy. In particular, the goal of the military-chemical complex is to try to use all possible illegal means to continue their illegitimate activity that violates agreements, even after an agreement was signed between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. governments about the termination of the development, production, and testing of chemical weapons. They would like to continue today what they did yesterday and my article hindered this. I know dozens of scientists working in this area who completely agree with my arguments listed in the article “A Poisoned Policy,” but they are afraid to speak out. My arrest will once again reinforce their fears. I think that my explanation in the article – the information about the military-chemical complex continuing its illegal activity in the area of the development of new chemical weapons – doesn’t constitute a state secret. As proof of my words, I refer to my article called “Inversion” published on October 10, 1991 in the newspaper Kuranty . I warned in this article that although democratic forces had scored a victory over the coup supporters – that is, over the totalitarian regime and the VPK in particular – the VPK is waiting for a return match. It is trying to guard and preserve all the structures necessary to continue its anti-national policy. In this article I called attention to the development of new chemical weapons in our country. I was an employee at GRNIIOKhT at this time, and I wasn’t even disciplined for that article. It is true, that at the beginning of January of 1992, I was dismissed because of staff reductions. If on October 22, 1992, I was arrested for disclosing virtually the same information that I cited a year before in the article in “Kuranty,” it confirms my forewarning about the attempts of the leaders of the military-chemical complex to try to get their revenge. It also completely supports my arguments that the current indictment was produced for a political purpose.”

All the formalities were completed and I could only wait for the scheduled court session that would settle my fate on Monday. By that time I finally realized that if I wasn’t released from the prison, my fate had been decided beforehand. There was nothing I could count on without a reliable lawyer and the support of the people. This is why I was agitated, counting the hours left before the court session.

Different jail procedures like morning walks and going to the shower added some variety to the isolation experience and the cramped space surrounded by four walls. Of course you might think that reading would be a welcome diversion from the gloomy surroundings, but for some reason you quickly got tired of it in jail.