Scientists from a former chemical weapons factory in Russia's Saratov Region have written to Russian Emergencies Minister Sergey Shoygu warning him of an impending disaster at the facility. The State Organic Synthesis Technology Institute in the village of Shikhany faces bankruptcy after years of declining demand. The scientists say the facility owes millions of roubles in debts and the 500 personnel have not been paid for months. They warn that no provisions have been made by the state to safeguard the stockpiles of toxic agents at the institute when it goes into liquidation. 
The scientific associates of the federal state unitary enterprise State Organic Synthesis Technology Institute (GITOS) located in the settlement of Shikhany in Saratov Region, have written a letter to Russian Emergencies Minister Sergey Shoygu. They likened the current state of affairs at the enterprise to a natural disaster.
The institute, which specialized in the development of chemical weapons for 40 years and accumulated an impressive stockpile of toxic agents, owes R100m to energy companies and to its own personnel. All of the power has been shut off at the institute. The institute's wage arrears were accumulated over a period of 11 months and ultimately amounted to R17m.
"This is not a current problem. We have lived with it for more than 10 years," the chemists wrote. During that time, the personnel staff was cut to one-seventh of its previous size, decreasing from 3,500 positions to 500. The remaining personnel have nowhere to go: They cannot afford to move (they do not even have money for food, and hunger strikes are no longer a rare occurrence here), and there is no demand for such highly specific specialities in the country today. The institute's conversion plans (entailing the production of scarce medicines) have been difficult to implement: Investors face almost insurmountable difficulties because the institute still has the status of a restricted facility.
The institute's problems began in 1992 after Russia signed the international Chemical Weapons Convention. Now bankruptcy (or reorganization) proceedings have been instituted at the enterprise after all, but they might take a long time because of that nefarious restricted status.
According to the letter's authors, the Federal Agency for Industry, which took control of the institute along with the rest of the Russian Munitions Agency's charges, feels no responsibility for the hazardous production facility. According to the chemists, the agency only cares about the profitable portion of the enterprise (the one that barely makes a living on pharmaceuticals). For most of GITOS, the reorganization will mean liquidation (some of the institute buildings are already being dismantled). No one knows how the toxic agents, whose containers have to be renewed regularly, will be stored in the absence of personnel. In addition, no one knows what will happen to the personnel. An official resettlement programme has been instituted for them, but it can only handle a few families a year.
"People are losing their patience," the chemists informed Shoygu. "There have been demands for mass hunger strikes and highway traffic blockades. It has become exceptionally difficult to keep the work team within the law." The authors of the letter suggested that the failure of the Russian government to take action in this situation could lead to a man-made disaster.
A similar situation has taken shape in another part of the region, in the settlement of Gornyy, located near a chemical weapons destruction plant. As Nezavisimaya Gazeta already reported, 3,000 people in Gornyy attended a protest rally in spring last year. They demanded the dismissal of Aleksandr Timofeyev, the head of the district administration, saying that he had "lobbied for their interests badly on regional and federal levels". Actually, GITOS had once wanted to be included in the chemical weapons destruction programme, but its request was denied for some reason. By the same token, the Gornyy residents were not included in the Mikhaylovskoye closed administrative territorial entity that was established around the plant. The offended Gornyy residents, who do not have standard water mains, sewers, and heating systems, threatened to prevent the opening of the second section of the dangerous plant, which was located nearby. A few days ago, the deputy governor of the regional government, Sergey Lisovskiy, introduced a new district leader to the residents of the settlement. He is Gennadiy Kuznetsov. This change of leadership took place at the same time as the protest of the chemists from GITOS.

Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Moscow
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