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Research Testing Institute of Military Medicine of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in St. Petersburg (Photo: The Insider)
Russia still has scientific centers and institutes involved in chemical weapons research and manufacturing, including Novichok, according to research by The Insider, Bellingcat, Der Spiegel and Radio Liberty.
Despite the fact that in September 2017 Russia announced the total destruction of chemical weapons, journalists concluded that they continue to develop and produce them for the needs of special services. The investigation lasted more than a year.
According to the researchers, the poisons of the Novichok group are being developed by Research Testing Institute of Military Medicine of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (GNII) in Saint Petersburg and the Signal Science Center in Moscow… Both organizations are associated with GRU unit number 29155, which, according to journalists, was involved in the poisoning of Bulgarian businessman Yemelyan Gebrev in 2015 and Sergei and Yulia Skripal in 2018.
Control of the destruction of chemical weapons was taken over by the Federal Directorate for the Safe Storage and Destruction of Chemical Weapons, which belongs to the military unit at 16A Nagatinskaya Street in Moscow. The Signal Science Center is also located there.
According to journalists, the director of the St. Petersburg State Research Institute of Military Medicine Sergey Chepur He was actively involved in the preparation of operations for the poisoning of Novichok, including Sergei and Yulia Skripal, and communicated with GRU officers. Bellingcat gained access to billing data for the phone calls, showing that Chepur called or wrote at least 65 times to the head of GRU unit # 29155, Andrei Averyanov, between May 2017 and September 2019.
Bellingcat reports that Chepur spoke with Major General Denis Sergeev on several occasions. (“Sergei Fedotov”), participant in the operation to poison the Bulgarian businessman Emelyan Gebrev and Skripals.
Three months before the poisoning of the Skripals, Chepur contacted Alexander Mishkin (“Alexander Petrov”), who is now wanted by the British authorities. Another Chepur interlocutor is Colonel Alexander Kovalchuk, who, according to Bellingcat, was part of the GRU group, which is engaged in covert operations. Kovalchuk may have been involved in the poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury. Chepur also often calls the director of the Artur Zhirov Signals Science Center.
Chepur’s phone calls show that he often communicates with high-ranking FSB officials; journalists suggest that chemical weapons specialists are cooperating with both the GRU and the FSB.
Chepur attended the meeting on February 27, 2018 (a few days before the poisoning of the Skripals), together with three GRU officers Alexander Mishkin, Anatoly Chepiga (“Ruslan Boshirov”) and Denis Sergeev.
Three days later, the explorers went to London, and after the meeting, Chepur contacted researchers from the Signal Science Center and went to the 27th Science Center of the Russian Ministry of Defense, “the main scientific institution of the Ministry of Defense. Defense of the Russian Federation on the problems of ensuring national interests and state security in the military chemical industry. and military biological areas, in addition to countering the threats of proliferation and use of chemical and biological weapons. ”During the visit, he was accompanied by a chemical weapons specialist, Viktor Taranchenko, who at one point moved from Center 27 to Signal.
Bellingcat researchers believe On February 27, 2018, preparations for the operation to poison the Skripals in Salisbury were completed in Moscow..
Previously, chemical weapons in the Russian Federation were developed at the 33rd Central Research and Testing Institute of the Ministry of Defense in the village of Shikhany-2, Saratov Region. Some scientists involved in the development claim that the Novice was created there.
«Interestingly, Signal has another, more prosaic direction of activity: Zhirov and his team became the authors of a whole series of patents for bioactive additives and dry mixes for sports drinks. Therefore, when “Petrov” (Mishkin) and “Boshirov” (Chepiga) in a conversation with Margarita Simonyan, they presented themselves as sports nutrition vendors, it was an internal corporate joke, understandable only to a few ”, the researchers point out.
Radio Liberty, which conducted an independent investigation, believes that Russian scientists have developed a new system for the administration of poisons from the Novichok group to the body.… Signal chief Artur Zhirov investigated nanocapsulation, a technology that makes it possible to cover small particles of an active substance with a shell. Radio Liberty suggests that with the help of nanocapsules it is possible to delay and disguise the action of the Novice, which happened during the poisoning of Alexei Navalny.
The journalists were only able to speak to two people involved in the investigation. Sergei Chepur denied communicating with the head of the GRU unit, Averyanov, and intelligence officers Mishkin and Sergeev. Viktor Taranchenko, who now works at Signal, said he had never dealt with Novice.
On March 4, 2018, former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury, UK. They managed to survive.
The British government accused Russia of participating in the assassination attempt on the Skripal and of violating the Chemical Weapons Convention.
According to British law enforcement officers, Russian GRU agents are behind the assassination attempt. «Alexander Petrov “and” Ruslan Boshirov “ (real names: Anatoly Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin).
The media also reported that British police had identified a third suspect, who turned out to be a GRU officer under a false name. «Sergey Fedotov “ (real name – Denis Sergeev). According to an investigation by Bellingcat, The Insider and Der Spiegel, he was in Bulgaria when Yemelyan Gebrev was poisoned. Presumably, Sergeev was in charge of the operation to poison the Skripals.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny fell ill on August 20 during a flight from Tomsk to Moscow. He was hospitalized in a hospital in Omsk, and a few days later his relatives managed to evacuate the politician to the Charite clinic in Berlin. Independent laboratories in Germany, France and Sweden, as well as experts from the OPCW, confirmed that Navalny was poisoned by Novice.
At the same time, information appeared that against opponents they used «an improved version of the “poison that was supposed to die on the plane.”
Now Alexei Navalny is in Germany for rehabilitation.
