Vladimir Pasechnik
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Vladimir Artemovich Pasechnik (12 October 1937
Biography
A native of
In 1974, at the age of 37, Pasechnik was invited by a general from the
In the mid-1980s, Pasechnik became increasingly dissatisfied. ("I couldn't sleep at night, thinking about what we were doing," he would tell his British handlers.) He began to plan a defection in 1988, but had never been permitted to travel abroad. His chance came in the summer of 1989, when in recognition of past performance he was allowed to travel to
In early 1993, the British government permitted Pasechnik to speak publicly. The next year, writer James Adams told Pasechnik's story in a book, The New Spies. Pasechnik lived in Wiltshire and worked at the UK Department of Health's Centre for Applied Microbiology & Research (CAMR) at Porton Down, near Salisbury, before forming Regma Biotechnologies, which is involved in research into tuberculosis and other drug resistant infections.
Pasechnik died of a stroke in 2001 in Salisbury. He was survived by his wife, Natasha, a daughter and two sons. According to one of his sons, Nikita, he was always expecting the KGB (or the later FSB) to deal with him.[4]
See also
- Soviet biological weapons program
- List of Eastern Bloc defectors
References
- ^ a b Preston, Richard (9 March 1998). "THE BIOWEAPONEERS". pp. 52-65. The New Yorker.
- ^ Saxon, Wolfgang (23 November 2001). "V. Pasechnik, 64, Is Dead; Germ Expert Who Defected". The New York Times Company.
- ^ "Vladimir Pasechnik". Telegraph Media Group Limited. 29 November 2001.
- ^ Bannerman, Lucy (12 March 2018). "Sergei Skripal: Salisbury's other spy lived in fear of KGB revenge". The Times. Retrieved 12 March 2018. (subscription required)