One of the heads of Russia’s chemical weapons program and the head of the Novitchuk project, the lethal nerve gas used against Sergei Scrippel and his daughter, was for many years under the scrutiny of Israeli intelligence – until his mysterious death in 2002
General Anatoly Konsavitch
The Russian spy poisoning affair has a very interesting Middle Eastern angle: one of the heads of the Russian chemical weapons program and the head of the Novitchuk project, the lethal nerve gas used against Sergei Scrippel and his daughter, was for many years under the scrutiny of Israeli intelligence.
Russia has been developing and manufacturing chemical weapons since the end of World War II and perhaps even before. In the early 1970s, its scientists began to produce far more violent and deadly versions of nerve gases, including the “Novitchuk”. General Anatoly Konsiewicz, an expert in physics and organic chemistry and a senior official in his field in the Soviet Union, was responsible for the production of the lethal gas compounds.
In the mid-1980s and under President Gorbachev, the Soviet Union declared that it would sign treaties to prevent the development, production and stockpiling of chemical weapons. In 1987, the Soviet government announced that it was unilaterally halting production, and in 1989 Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze declared that his country had abandoned “completely” the production of poison gas.
In the next decade, after the breakup of the Soviet Union and under the rule of President Boris Yeltsin, Russia collapsed economically and needed all the help of the West The US demanded to be involved in the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction, including the chemical one, and Wilcin appointed General Concevich as his assistant and liaison With the West. But Russia dismantled only some of its chemical weapons, and evidence that it did not deliver all the material for dismantling soon became known to spies and journalists in the West.
Will Englund, the Baltimore Sun reporter, published a confession by several scientists and revealed the existence of the “Novitchuk”. One of these scientists accidentally touched a fragment of the material and died. Others followed him. Those who survived were prosecuted for talking to him. A Russian banker and his secretary died after a small amount had been smashed on their phone, but the Russians insisted, just like this week, that they did not have the weapons. “We play by the rules,” said Koenshevitz.
In the 1990s, worrisome news began to arrive in Syria that experiments were being conducted to develop chemical weapons that were more advanced than the simple mustard and nerve gases they possessed. According to reports, the knowledge of advanced weapons production was provided by General Koeniewicz. It seems that the business with the Syrians was not a government initiative but rather an attempt by Konsavitz to do his home. In July 1995, under the guise of a routine work visit to Syria as part of the good military ties that remained between the two countries, he began to establish personal ties with the heads of the Syrian regime, received huge sums of money and in return provided the knowledge and some of the equipment for the production of deadly chemical weapons.
Some of the details of the deals were known to the Mossad in the late 1990s. Prime Minister Ehud Barak tried to warn the heads of government in Moscow against the general’s actions, but to no avail. It seemed that President Yeltsin could not or would not interfere.
In the book “The Volunteer” published in Canada, the author, Michael Ross, attests to himself as a Mossad man and as part of his job, when Israel saw that the pressure was not working, he was asked to pretend to be an independent researcher. The author testified that he repeatedly called top officials in the Kremlin and told them that, according to information, he had chemical weapons sold to Syria. The intention was to frighten Moscow because this information was about to be published soon but that did not help either.
In Israel they were furious. On April 29, 2002, in circumstances that remained unknown, General Konsavitch died during a flight from Aleppo to Moscow. It seems that Syria is confident that Israeli intelligence has succeeded in reaching him and poisoning him.
A top secret CIA document from that period states that Syria managed to produce a large amount of deadly chemical weapons until the death of the general. According to various sources, on his recent visit to Syria, Konsavitz brought with him sketches and sketches for the development of the “Novitchuk”. If he did not find his death on the flight back to Moscow, the West’s problem with Syria, and especially with Israel, could have been much greater today.
The chemical weapon that was created as a result of Koensiewicz’s activity, or so the Syrians claimed, would be dismantled later in a deal brokered by Russia to prevent an American attack, which led to Russia’s deep military involvement in Syria and its transformation into the influential power in the region.
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