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

The same fate befell my initiative to revive the Sunday Tatar concerts in Kazan which were broadcast on short wave radio. Numerous radio stations for jamming the foreign “voices,” had become useless in the onslaught of the era of Glasnost. In 1989 the U.S.S.R. government decided to put them to better use for developing cultural links between nations. Regular broadcasts of Tatar music started on the weekends, and the Tatar Diaspora living in Moscow finally got a chance to know their own music better. It was at a time when the U.S.S.R. leaders were interested in negotiating a signed agreement with Tatarstan, which had justly demanded the same rights for itself that the so-called union republics enjoyed.

When the U.S.S.R. collapsed and Russia was transformed into a sovereign state, it seemed that the process for granting Tatarstan the right to make independent decisions and to have a real government was evolving more rapidly. I have already written about what happened later, when Tatarstan decided to conduct a referendum on the issue of sovereignty. Then democrats of every shade, Communists, and nationalist-chauvinists united against this “impudence” of the Tatars. There were no limits to the defamation of my people in the press, on radio, and on TV.

In April of 1993, after lengthy reflection, I called the secretary of Mikhail Poltoranin, who headed the Committee for Radio and Television at that time. I briefly explained the objective of my proposed visit and asked him to spare me 10 minutes to lay out my plans. I wanted famous Tatars – democratically-minded scientists, public figures, and writers to speak on the radio and on TV and call for voting in favor of Boris Yeltsin’s policy at the coming referendum. A gesture of good will was necessary in order to do so – a sign of readiness for cooperation and the resumption of the Tatar concert broadcasts on weekends, which had been cancelled. Poltoranin’s secretary responded that his chief was very busy, and I had to call his deputy Sergei Yushenkov about it. Yushenkov agreed to meet me and I arrived at the appointed time. In the past I had briefly met with him, to state my position regarding the destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles, so I didn’t have to introduce myself.

I thought that President Yeltsin ought to make a special statement on this subject. Yushenkov got interested in this idea, and he promised that he would immediately talk it over with Sergei Filatov, Yeltsin’s Chief of Staff. Yushenkov also said he would help put into operation the idea of having the Tatar language broadcasts resumed, and he immediately phoned several of the chief producer’s offices at TV and radio stations. As far as I understood, they promised to help and asked me to call. However, in Russia it is difficult to ensure any kind of real and positive result, no matter what you do, without a direct order…

I am sorry that I wasn’t more persistent and didn’t ask Yushenkov to use this method. The result was the proverbial “football,” when you are thrown around with your initiative like a ball. But I decided to do what little I could, and I endlessly dialed the numbers that Yushenkov had given me. The people I called were constantly “out” or “in a meeting.” Finally my patience was exhausted.

Fortunately, as Yushenkov told me the next day, Filatov had approved of my idea of having the Russian President make a statement on chemical weapons. To implement this idea I had to meet with Aleksei Yablokov, the Presidential Advisor for Ecology.

I met him back in January of 1993 in his huge office on the third floor of the Kremlin palace. The vast windows opened up on the Square of the Cathedral of Ivan the Great, where the Tsar-cannon, which has never fired a single shot, is displayed.

When Yablokov learned the reason for my call, he immediately agreed to have a talk with me. Another day I met him and explained my proposal for the Russian President to make a statement regarding the destruction of stockpiles of chemical weapons. Aleksei Vladimirovich agreed with this idea and gave a number of recommendations about how I could develop my project further. The next morning I brought a revised version of the President’s statement to him. Three days later he called me at home to say that he had managed to produce a compromise version of the statement and to get the approval stamps of all the respective services, including the Committee on Conventional Problems, and that the President was just about to sign it. After the statement was signed (five days before the referendum), Yablokov called me again. I went to the Kremlin to see him and he gave me a copy. I cite this statement below and can say that to this day it has fundamental significance connected with the issue of the destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles in Russia.

We are distributing the text of the statement of President B. N. Yeltsin of the Russian Federation on the issue of chemical weapons.

In the past few months the public in a number of regions has been seriously concerned about the issue of the destruction of chemical weapons.

In the preceding decades, tens of thousands of tons of military chemical agents have been produced and stockpiled in Russia. The world has changed, and Russia’s position in the world has changed: we are not going to attack anybody. The time has come to rid ourselves of chemical weapons which we have inherited from the past legacy. This is not only Russia’s view, but also the opinion shared by the one hundred and thirty eight countries which have signed the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons this year in Paris.

We must begin the destruction of chemical weapons, proceeding from the requirements not only of international, but also of national security; as the shells and containers are steadily deteriorating and can’t be stored indefinitely. These weapons were produced over the course of many years at several plants. The destruction process will be difficult and a substantial period of time will be required for its implementation. However, it has to be started. A government program for the destruction of chemical weapons is currently being prepared. It will be based upon the following principles:

§ Unconditional guarantee of the safety of the life and health of the population, as well as of the condition of the surrounding natural environment;

§ Unconditional fulfillment of all the social needs of the population living in the zone of influence of the chemical weapons destruction facilities;

§ Use of the latest technologies, making it possible to minimize the risk and also, in cases where feasible, to extract valuable chemical substances as a result of the destruction;

§ Reduction to the minimum of the volume of transportation of chemical agents, within the Russian territory.

The work on the destruction of chemical weapons will begin only after positive conclusions [have been reached] by state environmental-protection experts regarding the Program as a whole and at each individual facility. Such an expert evaluation will definitely involve the participation not only of scientists and specialists, but also of representatives of public organizations, including environmental organizations, on both the all-Russian and regional levels.

I am requesting the executive bodies of Udmurtiya, Chuvashiya, and the Saratov Region to ensure their active involvement in development of this program, in the determination of the priorities and terms of its preparation and in carrying out the work of the destruction of chemical weapons. Such participation will help transform this endeavor – an unavoidable step for Russia – into a powerful lever for the socio-economic development of significant territories of the country, while strictly ensuring the observance of guarantees for the safety of the population. A substantial part of the funds under this program will be channeled towards solving regional issues of public health protection, the protection of motherhood and childcare, as well as towards the construction of housing accommodations, social and community services, roads, and other infrastructure.