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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Suicidal guards pose threat to nuclear plants |
| 2006-05-09 |
| ISNBy Simon Saradzhyan in Moscow for ISN Security Watch (09/05/06) Over the past few years, at least four Russian soldiers serving in a military unit guarding a weapons-grade plutonium facility in Siberia have killed themselves, and a fifth was only narrowly prevented from committing a ritual suicide. The situation underscores the insufficient screening of recruits charged with securing nuclear facilities and the possibilities for nuclear sabotage by terrorists or disgruntled insiders may pose to Russia. Anatoly Borgoyakov on 14 April became the fourth serviceman of Unit No 3377, which guards the Zheleznogorosk Mining and Chemical Combine in Krasnoyarsky Krai, to commit suicide in less than three years. Private Borgoyakov hanged himself in the unit's barracks, where servicemen patrol the outside security perimeter around the combine, according to Russia's Vremya Novostei daily. The combine operates a spent nuclear fuel storage facility and a reactor designed to produce weapons-grade plutonium, according to the web site of Norwegian-based ecological watchdog - Bellona. Borgoyakov's body was found by fellow servicemen. The local branch of the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office was investigating his death as a suicide as of late April, and there were no signs of foul play or that he had been driven to kill himself by other servicemen, as it has been often the case in a Russian army plagued by violent hazing. Servicemen of this Interior Troops unit testified that Borgoyakov was withdrawn and taciturn in what perhaps was the result of the fact that his mother died of alcohol poisoning, his father was an alcoholic, and two of his brothers were serving prison terms, according to Vremya Novostei daily newspaper on 19 April. His psychological condition was so unstable that the unit's psychiatrist recommended that Borgoyakov be suspended from arms altogether, according to the daily in an article headlined: "Nuclear Facility Is Guarded by 'Psychos'." The daily quoted the unit's deputy commander, Sergei Ponamoryov, as estimating that 65 of his guards' "psychological health raises concerns". At least, three other servicemen in the same unit have committed suicide in the past three years, though different local news agencies disagree on the figure. In 2004, one of the unit's soldiers killed himself and a second attempted to kill himself, according to an 18 April report from Interfax news agency. The latter had belonged to a totalitarian sect before conscription and was planning a ritual suicide, but commanders learned of his plans and sent him to a psychiatric clinic, according to Vremya Novostei. In the fall of 2005, two other servicemen in the same unit committed suicide three days apart. One of them hanged himself on a belt on the premises of the unit, while the second hanged himself in an apartment building outside the unit's territory, according to Interfax. However, according to a November 2005 report by RIA-Novosti news agency, as many as five servicemen in the same unit killed themselves last year alone. The news agency cited local legislator Yuri Shvytkin as the source of that figure. Last year also saw one guard from the unit shoot dead one of his fellow soldiers and wound another. According to Vremya Novostei, "tens of servicemen" die in this unit every year due to a variety of reasons, including accidental shooting. The daily said that reports from "numerous inspections" of the unit showed that the servicemen worked and lived in harsh conditions in the far-flung province and speculated that those conditions, rather than hazing, had led to the series of suicides. |
| Posted by:Steve |