Inside novichok town
Mirror uncovers sinister secret Russian base
THIS is the secret “closed” town which produced the killer novichok toxin used in the Salisbury attacks.
Shikhany has a sinister welcome sign at its entrance: The Town of Chemists.
It is here where the nerve agent in the assassination attempt on Sergei and Yulia Skripal was created and stored.
As one of the notorious Russian closed towns, Shikhany is strictly off-limits. All Russians need official passes to visit. Foreigners are banned.
There is only one road in and only one out. Yet the Mirror managed to get into this menacing town, 540 miles south-east of Moscow.
Using a car with local number plates, we drove past the police control post.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, chemical weapons expert, said: “I’m very surprised you managed to get into Shikhany and even more surprised you managed to get out.
“There is no doubt that Shikhany was where novichok was produced.”
The former Nato commander added: “Labs in Shikhany were destroyed as recently as April. They were flattened.
“Nobody knows where the novichok is now. Russia describes Shikhany as a little village. It’s not. It’s their Porton Down. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons came to Salisbury but should have gone to Shikhany.”
British intelligence chiefs confirmed evidence it was the home of novichok. But town mayor Andrei Tatarinov said all the work here is for civil purposes. As I watched Russian tanks, I was not sure how they fit with his claim.
He also insisted British intelligence about novichok cannot be true as no Brits “have ever been allowed into
Shikhany”. Only members of the military who work at the bases within the small, remote town’s limits live here.
It is made up of three smaller settlements, Shikhany 1, 2 and 4. We drove around with ease up to the gates of Shikhany 2, where the chemists developed novichok in the 1970s.
It is true it is not made here any more. But it has been stockpiled in Russia, possibly here.
Locals were obviously reluctant to talk to us. But one man sitting at a bus stop near the CAPABILITY Vladimir Putin Supermarket 5 on the main street said: “This is still a closed town. Even people who live and work in the town do not know about all the goings-on here. Some of it was top secret. “I heard about the novichok incident in England but I’m sure we were not behind that. It has to be the Americans. There is no way any Russian agents would be that unprofessional.” In March, double agent Sergei Skripal, 67, and his daughter Yulia, 34, fell critically ill in Salisbury, Wilts. They survived, despite novichok poisoning. Months later, Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley, 45, came into contact with the discarded toxin and fell ill.
Dawn, 44, later died. CCTV showed Russian agents Alexander Mishkin and Anatoliy Chepiga were behind it.
Mr de Bretton-Gordon said: “As the East/West confrontation hots up, chemical weapons become more important to use in towns and cities.
“Russia’s capability is frightening and novichok is a frightening weapon. Salisbury still hasn’t been cleaned up and that [involved] one-quarter of an egg-cup full – that’s how lethal it is.” To reach the home of novichok we flew from Moscow to Saratov, on the Volga River, then drove 85 miles.
Shikhany is in one of Russia’s finest agricultural regions. After two hours, we turned off the highway and on to a country lane, drove swiftly past the checkpoint and we were in.
There is a statue of Lenin and some streets are named after Soviet war heroes. There are run-down apartment blocks but also carefully manicured flower beds by the roadside.
Mr Tatarinov denied his town had chemical weapons. He said: “Claims novichok was manufactured here are absurd. The lab used to be involved in their development but there were no chemical weapons depots here.”
President Vladimir Putin has decided to reopen Shikhany next year,
sparking speculation it is being cleaned up. It is still one of dozens of closed towns and cities that can be traced to the Cold War. They used to include strategic ports and cities with military bases, such as Kaliningrad. Some, such as Shikhany, were involved in other classified research. The mayor said he hoped the city’s future lies in the production of fertilisers, household and veterinary chemicals, and that he was intending to register a word as a trademark for the locally manufactured products. That word, he said, was “novichok”. ■ Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Russian leader Putin is not “winning hands down” after Salisbury but added: “There’s a lot more work to do.”
Russia describes Shikhany as a little village... it’s not, it’s their Porton Down HAMISH DE BRETTON-GORDON LIKENS TOWN TO UK DEFENCE LABS