Kathrine Frich
For decades, allegations about secret weapons programs have surrounded the Kremlin.
They have often been dismissed as Cold War relics or Western paranoia. But some of the starkest warnings now come from inside Russia’s own scientific past.
One former state chemist says the most dangerous work may not belong to history.
A scientist speaks out
Dr Vil Mirzayanov, a chemist who helped develop the Novichok nerve agents in a secret Soviet laboratory, says Vladimir Putin’s Russia is still creating new chemical weapons.
Mirzayanov worked at the Gosniiokht institute in Moscow in the 1970s, where scientists were tasked with producing nerve agents designed to be “more deadly” than any before them.
He later led tests to turn the substances, known as Novichok, meaning “newcomer,” into usable weapons.
Risking everything
In the early 1990s, Mirzayanov went public about the program, despite believing he was “doomed” to imprisonment, according to reporting by The i newspaper.
Legal chaos following the collapse of the Soviet Union prevented his prosecution, and after facing a so-called “kangaroo court” in 1994, he was eventually able to move to the United States.
In 2008, he published a book exposing Novichok, including chemical formulas used to create the agents.
Salisbury shock
Mirzayanov said he was stunned in 2018 when Novichok was used in the poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, England.
Then-prime minister Theresa May confirmed the substance was “part of a group of nerve agents known as Novichok.”
Russia denied involvement, but a UK inquiry later concluded Putin was likely to have authorised the attack, which ultimately led to the death of British citizen Dawn Sturgess.
New poisons feared
Mirzayanov believes the attackers failed to apply enough of the agent to kill the Skripals outright.
He also doubts that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with Novichok in 2020.
“I guess they used new poison agent to kill Navalny. Not Novichok, because they don’t want scandals connected to this violation of chemical weapons conventions,” he told The i.
A grim warning
Mirzayanov now fears Russia is developing chemical weapons that are even harder to trace or counter.
“Those chemical weapons are only weapons of mass destruction against civilians, innocent people,” he said.
He also urged US President Donald Trump not to be “naive” in peace talks with Moscow, claiming that in every agreement Russia signs, “they’re creating at least one loophole [to] circumvent this agreement.”
Sources: The i newspaper, express.
