Departures of note

Vladimir Uglev was a Russian biochemist who helped develop the Novichok class of military nerve agents. Born in Kirovsk, Russia, on 20 September 1946, he graduated from the Dmitri Mendeleyev Institute of Chemical Technology in Moscow in 1975, specialising in the chemistry and technology of biologically active substances. From 1975 to 1990 he worked as a senior researcher at the Volsk branch of the State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology, which participated in the development of poisons. His name became widely known in 2018, when he gave a series of interviews to the media following the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, England. In 2020, after Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, Uglev actively commented on the properties of the poison to various news outlets. He later collaborated with the investigative outlet The Insider during its inquiry into Russia's use of Novichok, including an investigation into who produces the agent in Russia and how. Uglev spent his final years in Anapa and died on 26 October 2026 at the age of 81.