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SHEMYAKIN INSTITUTE OF BIOORGANIC CHEMISTRY RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

 

 

 

Prof, V.T.IVAN OV, D. Sc. 16/10 Mildukho-Maldaya str. 117871

Director Moscow V-437 RUSSIA
Phone (005) 3830-56-38
Fax (095) 310-7007

Dr. Joshua Lederberg Telex 411982 trem su

Chair

Working Group on Biological

Weapons Control

Nationalal Academy of Sciences

Committee on Internationa Security

and Arms Control

2101 Constitution Avenue

Washington, D.C. 20418

U.S.A. August 7, 1992

Dear Joshua,

It was nice to hear from you after our last meeting at Skytop
Lodge. As you correctly mentioned in your letter of July 7 the po-
litical context has changed dramatically since December, 1990. Our
Academy is now Russian Academy of Sciences, and we experience the
same difficulties as the country in general. The Institutes are on-
ly partially supported by the Academy and we all struggle for sur-
vival.

Under such pressure I am not sure that the Presidium and the
new President are prepared to spend effort and money on the issues
not directly related to that struggle.

Stimulated by your letter I will try to find out what did Pre-
sident Yeltsin state about Sverdlovsk (1979) epidemic and what is
his team doing now about the investigation. Some papers appeared
recently in the domestic press also related to the activity of
Sverdlovsk institute which is exactly what you expected.

I do not think that the visit of Drs. Burgasov and Nikiforov
should be seen as a cloud on the credibility of academies’ activi-
ties - you and we did what we could under the circumstances.

I will write to you again when I collect the information
presently available. However, being completely tied up by the
duties at the Institute and my own peptide research I feel hesi-
tant to do an independent investigation.

To my view, the American-Russian Biomedical Research Foundation
is a more attractive place for investing time and effort than Arms
Control Activities. I will algo discuss with Eugene Sverdlov all
these issues.

Kind personal regards

Sincerely, J
aki,

Vadim T. Ivanov Washington, D°c.