Western Companies, Russian Scientific Institutes to Meet to Discuss Chemical Research Commercialization

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Representatives from Western companies and scientific institutes in the former Soviet Union are set to meet next week as part of efforts to prevent former Soviet chemical weapons scientists from transferring their expertise to rogue states or terrorist groups (see GSN, Sept. 24, 2003).

The conference, set to be held Sept. 27-29 in Moscow, is intended to help scientists from chemical research and production institutes in Russia and other former Soviet states to commercialize their efforts. More than 200 people have registered to attend the conference, which is being sponsored by the U.S. State Department’s Bio-Chem Redirect Program.

Conference participants, according to a State Department official, include representatives from 35 Western companies including General Electric, Dow Chemical and Sigma-Aldrich, as well as a number of smaller firms. Scientists from 25 research institutes in Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Ukraine are also planning to attend.

All of the institutes being represented at the conference are “priorities for engagement,” the State Department official said, meaning that each employ at least one former Soviet chemical weapons scientist.

Nonproliferation experts said the conference is the first time an effort was being made to engage former chemical weapons scientists. Much of the chemical nonproliferation focus in former Soviet states has been on the elimination of the vast stockpile of remaining actual chemical weapons, said Raphael Della Ratta of the Russian-American Nuclear Security Advisory Council in Washington (see GSN, July 26).

The various research institutes are set at the conference to present overviews of their technical capabilities and research projects, in what the State Department official described as an attempt to “market themselves” to Western companies. The conference will also include presentations intended to aid commercializing research efforts in Russia and Eurasia.   

In addition, “matchmaking” sessions are scheduled to allow representatives from Western companies to request and meet specific Russian and Eurasian scientists. The various Western companies attending the conference have “vastly taken advantage” of such sessions, the State Department official said.

There has been a “tremendous response” from Western companies in attending the conference, the official said.

“The former Soviet Union is an untapped marketplace for chemical science and research,” the official said. “Hopefully some good fruitful relationships will come out of this.”

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