In 1993, Novaya Gazeta reporters posing as a foreign buyer’s representatives were offered uranium pellets, plutonium plates, and a Soviet SS-20 nuclear warhead
In late October, Novaya Gazeta said it was closing after 33 years. It’s been Russia’s oldest independent publication, and it has documented every major event in the country’s modern history, from the shelling of the Russian parliament building in 1993 and the wars in Chechnya to the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny.
In 1993, a former Novaya Gazeta reporter penned an investigation revealing that private individuals in Russia could purchase nuclear weapons. Novaya Gazeta, Russia's oldest independent publication, had documented significant events in the nation's history. The investigation involved posing as representatives of a foreign businessman to purchase nuclear materials, including uranium pellets, plutonium plates, and a Soviet SS-20 nuclear warhead.
The sellers, operating across the Commonwealth of Independent States, were part of a network of dealers who often stole radioactive materials and rare earths, sometimes disguised as scrap metal. The network had strict rules regarding payments and penalties for fraud. The investigation concluded that such nuclear materials could indeed be bought and sold, posing a significant threat to global security.
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