Never Speak to Strangers and Other Writing from Russia and the Soviet Union by David Satter

Author:David Satter [David, Satter,]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ibidem Press
Published: 2020-10-18T16:00:00+00:00

Jamestown, Vol. 1, No. 12, Friday, September 12, 1997

The Shadow of Aum Shinri Kyo

In the post-communist era, there is one nightmare which will not go away: the possibility of a marriage between fanatical terrorist groups and the technical expertise of the post-Soviet states.

Now, the probe of Aum Shinri Kyo, the doomsday sect responsible for the poison gas attack on the Tokyo metro, is giving that frightening specter a disturbing amount of substance.

On May 21, the newspaper Izvestiya reported that Yoshihiro Inoue, the “chief of intelligence” for Aum Shinri Kyo, testified that production designs for the manufacture of sarin, the nerve gas used in the metro attack, were delivered to the sect in 1993 by Oleg Lobov, Russia’s former first deputy prime minister, in return for $100,000 in cash.

Lobov has denied the allegations but the newspaper also reported—and provided documents to support its allegations—that fighters from the sect, who entered Russia under the auspices of the Russian Japanese University which Lobov directed, received military training on the bases of the elite Taman and Kantemirov divisions near Moscow including practice with machine guns, rifles and tanks.

The cooperation between Aum Shinri Kyo and high ranking Russian officials began in 1992, three years before the Tokyo metro nerve gas attack. This gave the Russian side more than enough time to learn with whom they were dealing.

Russian leaders’ business dealings with the Japanese doomsday sect, however, also fit into another pattern, the tendency of former high ranking members of the Soviet nomenklatura to found organizations through which they can sell the services of the Russian government to any and all comers.

According to Izvestiya, the groundwork for the cooperation between high Russian officials and Aum Shinri Kyo was laid in 1991 with the registration in Moscow of the Russian Japanese University under the direction of Lobov.

A supposed social organization, the Russian Japanese University reserved for itself the right to engage in commercial activity, including foreign trade, and was granted a series of privileges.

Almost immediately, the founders of the university began to look for foreign business partners and when traditional Japanese businessmen hesitated, they entered into a relationship with the wealthy guru, Shoko Asahara, and his sect, Aum Shinri Kyo.

Unlike traditional Japanese businessmen, Asahara proved ready to cooperate with the Russian Japanese University without preconditions. Asahara wanted access to Russian military technology and the university saw cooperation with him as a potentially lucrative form of commercial activity.

According to documents printed by Izvestiya, Alexander Muraviev, the deputy general director of the Russian Japanese University, paved the way for members of the Aum Shinri Kyo to train on Russian military bases by asking the head of the Moscow military district to organize a shooting demonstration for a group of “Japanese businessmen.”

It was later learned that among the “businessmen,” were the persons who planned and carried out the attack on the Tokyo metro.

In the wake of the attack on the Tokyo metro, Lobov said that he had no idea that Asahara was such a dangerous person.

If he is telling the truth, Lobov’s naivety is astonishing.

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