Statement in support of Andrew Mogilyansky

On October 23, 2002 my two daughters went to the Dubrovka theater in Moscow to see the show "Nord-Ost". The theater was seized by terrorists that night, and over 900 people, including my two daughters, were held hostage. My younger daughter was later released by the terrorists, but my older daughter Nina was not. She was 14 years old... On October 26, 2002 she was killed with poisonous gas, which was deployed at the theater on Putin's orders. 124 other hostages were killed together with her that day, and nearly 800 were hospitalized with severe poisoning symptoms. Many of them of them took weeks to emerge from the gas-induced coma. Many others died within months from poisoning-related complications. Many of those who survived became handicapped due to irreversible damage to their internal organs caused by the poisonous gas.

Initially hailed by the Russian government as a success, the use of gas in the "rescue operation" by the Russian special services quickly transformed into one of the most controversial topics in the Russian political arena. The FSB (formerly KGB) and Putin personally asserted that the gas was harmless, and the hostages died for other health-related reasons, such as chronic illnesses. This was a blatant lie, all the more insulting because it was uttered by the same people who gave the unconscionable order to deploy the gas. Now they were trying to whitewash their criminal decision, which they obviously made for political reasons. These people - monsters in uniforms holding various government positions, all the way up to the President of Russia - were indifferent to the lives of ordinary people, indifferent to the life of Nina.

It did not take long for the hostages and their families to transform from terror act victims into a group of people outraged about what the Russian government hade done to them and their loved ones.

At the end of October 2002, almost immediately after the siege, a volunteer foundation to help Nord-Ost victims was formed in the USA. This Foundation was created by Andrew Mogilyansky, whom I had not yet met then. The Foundation began raising assistance for us, while its representative in Moscow, Natalya Schedrina, gathered information about victims and their families. Many Nord-Ost victims and families have met with Natalya or talked to her and knew that, paradoxically, she had the most complete database of contact information for hostages and their relatives.

This is why when in early 2003 the most active Nord-Ost activists decided to unite and form an organization, this database became an irreplaceable tool for us. Natalya gave it to me, and in March 2003 together with other activists I participated in the registration of ROO Nord-Ost, a new Russian NGO that exists to this day, and in which I have always been a member of the Coordination Committee.

Unlike the Foundation formed by Mogilyansky, which at this time was still trying to refrain from making politically controversial steps, ROO Nord-Ost and its members took a sharply critical position toward the Russian authorities. We demanded full disclosure of information concerning the gas used at Nord-Ost, and to hold those who gave the orders to use it (up to and including President Putin) accountable for the murder of our loved ones. The answers we received consisted of insulting official statements that the gas was harmless, and that our loved ones, all at once, died of various chronic illnesses unrelated to the gas.

Those who tried to start investigating the terrorist act and the siege were severely persecuted, and some were killed. For example, Sergey Yushenkov was assassinated in April 2003. He was investigating possible participation of the FSB in organizing (I repeat, in organizing, and not only in suppressing) the Nord-Ost terrorist act. Yuri Schekhochikhin, who was conducting his own investigation of Nord-Ost, was poisoned in July 2003. Jumping forward, I remind the readers that Alexander Litvinenko and Anna Politkovskaya, who also investigated Nord-Ost, were both killed by the FSB in 2006.

But until September 2003 our statements about the culpability of the Russian government (including the FSB and Putin personally) in the deaths of our loved ones were legally unprovable. In a situation when we did not even know the exact composition of the gas, we had nothing to counter the obviously absurd statemetns by the FSB and Putin that the gas was harmless.

All this changed in the second part of September 2003, when Andrew Mogilyansky called me from the USA and said that he had stunning information which proves not only that the gas was deadly, but that Putin and the FSB knew in advance that it would kill 15-17 percent of hostages. I repeat, they knew in advance, which means that when they gave the order to use the gas, they were ordering murder.

The information provided by Mogilyansky was shocking. Scientific research conducted by Mark Wheelis (a professor of toxicology at UC Davis) demonstrated that the gas used at Nord-Ost was statistically guaranteed to be deadly for about one-sixth of the hostages when deployed in exactly the same concentration which was already acknowledged by the authorities!

Let me briefly explain why. The Russian authorities by that time had already acknowledged that they used a "special aerosol" (gas) at Nord-Ost, but were adamant that its concentration was only minimally necessary to put 900 people to sleep, and therefore harmless. As Professor Wheelis showed, this statement contained an obvious contradiction: there is no such concentration. There is no safe concentration for 900 people! There is a safe concentration for each one of them individually, but what is safe for one of them (i.e. "minimally necessary" to put him or her to sleep) may be deadly for many others. And when the authorities deployed gas which had to put to sleep even those in the theater who had the strongest resistance and the slowest metabolism, they were statistically assured to kill a very large number of others, who had low resistance and high metabolism!

Andrew Mogilyansky, who had a college degree in mathematics and specialized in statistics, easily explained the meaning of this scientific research to me, translated the relevant documents into Russian, and even organized a conference phone call with Professor Wheelis who (through Andrew) again explained all details of his research to me. This telephone conversation was meticulously documented, and its minutes were later used on many occasions by me and other Nord-Ost activists in various actions and statements, all the way up to our petition against the Russian Federation filed in the European Court for Human Rights in Strassbourg. In this conversation Professor Mark Wheelis, for example, said the following: "All fentanyl derivatives are toxic. Those who made the decision of using the gas knew what would result from its application. Conclusion: either they were incompetent, or they knew what would happen, but went along with it anyway". I want to point out for avoidance of doubt that nobody could accuse the FSB or Putin of incompetence.

After this conversation I immediately understood that Andrew could become the target of very serious persecution [by Russia] as a result of his actions. To this day I cannot forgive myself for not forewarning him...

The information provided by Andrew gave our movement wings. We no longer had to wave our hands and yell slogans and accusations: we now had a sword, and this sword was provided to us by none other than Andrew Mogilyansky.

I should remind the reader that this was all happening in September-October 2003, just 5 months before the Russian presidential elections, which were scheduled for March 2004. The pressure on the leaders of ROO Nord-Ost greatly increased: we were regularly "invited" for "discussions" with representatives of Russian secret police, our phone lines were tapped, our e-mail was monitored. I have conclusive documentary proof from the records of the Nord-Ost terror act probe that information about us, and especially about the leaders of ROO "Nord-Ost" was actively used by Russian secret police agencies in the search for (or, as I assert here, in the creation of) any compromising materials against us.

Nevertheless Andrew contined to actively communicate with me in the fall of 2003 and the winter of 2003-2004. The main topics of our discussion were the gas and the information Andrew uncovered, as well as the distribution of assistance to victim families - in other words, the same people who were using the gas information in their campaign against the Russian government. We organized demonstrations, gave interviews in which we accused the authorities in the deaths of our loved ones, tried to launch legal attacks: for example, in March 2004 my wife and I filed a lawsuit titled Milovidov Family vs Putin in which many other Nord-Ost activists promptly joined (the lawsuit was, predictably, dismissed by Russia's corrupt and government-controlled court system).

All of this was possible, to a large extent, thanks to the information gathered and provided by Mogilyansky, and also because we were able to organize our activities under the auspices of ROO Nord-Ost which was created with Andrew's direct involvement.

In the first days of December 2003 Andrew arrived to Moscow, where he immediately embarked on the distribution of the charitable assistance of his Foundation (ROO Nord-Ost and I directly participated in this distribution and can confirm it), as well as in spreading the information about the gas which had been uncovered by him in the prior 2-3 months. He did this quite actively and on a daily basis. I can state this unequivocally based on my own personal communications with him at that time, and also based on my knowledge of his interactions of many other activists whom I personally know.

This is why I find absolutely absurd any claims that in December 2003 Andrew was involved in any criminal activity in Russia. I learned about these allegations after Andrew was arrested in the USA in December 2008 (5 years later!). I did not believe any of it then, and I do not believe any of it now.

Considering what Andrew was really doing in Russia in December 2003, I have no doubt that all "evidence" of his purported affiliation with the criminal group "Berenika" are fabricated from start to finish, and are nothing but a direct attack on Andrew organized by the FSB and other Russian secret police branches as payback for his activities which I described above.

I am doubly certain of this also because during our joint activities I have come to know Andrew personally, and I know both his moral values and his actual deeds which I personally witnessed. He devoted several years of his life to helping terror victims in Russia - as many would say, victims of Russian government-sponsored terrorism. Andrew did something that no other person could! And what he is being accused of by Russian secret services - is impossible, incompatible with his character, with his actions which were witnessed by me and by literally hundreds of other families of victims of the Nord-Ost and Beslan terror acts. All of them would doubtless join my opinion about Andrew.

I have three daughters, one of whom is 13 today, and another - Nina - will always be 14... I have no inclination to be compassionate to people who hurt children, especially girls 13-14 years old (which is what Andrew was accused of having done).

I am writing this statement because I have no doubt: Andrew was persecuted by the Russian government, which was taking revenge on him for his activities. As it took revenge on Litvinenko, Politkovskaya, Schekochikhin, Yushenkov and many others. Except that in Andrew's case this revenge took a different form, because it was not enough to kill him - it was necessary to destroy his reputation.

I know that my statement will be published on the web site www.informationpolonium.com, which has been organized by supporters of Andrew Mogilyansky. I give my consent to this publication. I further confirm the authenticity of my correspondence with Andrew which is being published there as well.

My contact information is available on the web site www.nord-ost.org. I am prepared to give any additional clarifications and to answer any questions concerning the above.

Dmitry Milovidov
April 13, 2016