.gif)
Alexander Goldfarb (microbiologist)
Encyclopedia
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
) is a Russian-American microbiologist, activist, and author. He emigrated from the USSR in 1975 and lived in Israel and Germany before settling permanently in New York in 1982. Goldfarb is a naturalized American citizen. He has combined a scientific career as a microbiologist with political and public activities focused on civil liberties
Civil liberties
Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...
and human rights in Russia
Human rights in Russia
The rights and liberties of the citizens of the Russian Federation are granted by Chapter 2 of the Constitution adopted in 1993.Russia is the signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and has also ratified a number of other international human rights instruments, including the...
, in the course of which he has been associated with Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He earned renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the...
, George Soros
George Soros
George Soros is a Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, philosopher, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros supports progressive-liberal causes...
, Boris Berezovsky, and Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko was an officer who served in the Soviet KGB and its Russian successor, the Federal Security Service ....
. He has not visited Russia since 2000.
Scientific career
Goldfarb studied biochemistryBiochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
at Moscow State University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
and graduated in 1969. After graduation, he worked at the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy
Kurchatov Institute
The Kurchatov Institute is Russia's leading research and development institution in the field of nuclear energy. In the Soviet Union it was known as I. V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy , abbreviated KIAE . It is named after Igor Kurchatov....
in Moscow. He emigrated from the USSR in 1975. He earned his Ph.D. in 1980 at the Weizmann Institute in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and continued his research with a post-doctoral program at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, Germany. From 1982 to 1991 he was an assistant professor at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. From 1992 to 2006 he was a faculty member at the Public Health Research Institute
Public Health Research Institute
The Public Health Research Institute was established in 1942 as an independent not-for-profit research organization affiliated with the New York City Department of Health. Dr. Ralph Muckenfuss, director of the Bureau of Laboratories of the Department of Health, was designated as the first director...
in New York where he led a U.S. government-funded study "Structure and Function of RNA Polymerase in E. Coli" with a total budget of $7 million. He also directed the project "Treating MDRTB in Siberian Prisons" funded by a $13 million grant from philanthropist George Soros
George Soros
George Soros is a Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, philosopher, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros supports progressive-liberal causes...
. According to a PubMed
PubMed
PubMed is a free database accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. The United States National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health maintains the database as part of the Entrez information retrieval system...
search, Goldfarb stopped publishing scientific work in 2005.
Contacts with Soviet dissidents
After emigration, Goldfarb maintained contact with dissidents in Russia and was a spokesman for Moscow refuseniks.http://books.google.com/books?id=7vQud4yM3R0C&pg=PT256&lpg=PT256&dq=%22default+spokesman+for+the+refuseniks%22&source=bl&ots=gYmOlpKHyS&sig=aii89HiJm0sehZ02sLIJT_0WO7c&hl=en&ei=OTgvTv7YGsKw8gPJ1oBV&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22default%20spokesman%20for%20the%20refuseniks%22&f=false He translated for Andrei SakharovAndrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He earned renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the...
at press conferences in advance of his 1975 Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
and helped organize the first appearance of Sakharov on American TV when Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
released the physicist from internal exile. From 1984 to 1986 Soviet authorities refused Goldfarb's father permission to leave the USSR after their unsuccessful attempt to make him collaborate and entrap American journalist Nicholas Daniloff
Nicholas Daniloff
Nicholas Daniloff is an American journalist who graduated from Harvard University and was most prominent in the 1980s for his reporting on the Soviet Union...
.
Work in Russia on Soros projects
Goldfarb was among the first political emigres to return to the USSR after Gorbachev launched his reforms. Impressions of his first visit in October 1987 were published as a cover story in the New York Times Magazine under the title "Testing GlasnostGlasnost
Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...
. An Exile Visits his Homeland". The story caught the attention of US philanthropist George Soros
George Soros
George Soros is a Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, philosopher, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros supports progressive-liberal causes...
, leading to a decade-long association between the two men. According to Soros' biographer Robert Slater, Goldfarb was among the first group of Russian exiles in New York whom Soros invited to brainstorm his would-be Foundation in Russia. In 1991 Goldfarb persuaded Soros to donate $100 million to help former Soviet scientists survive the hardships of the economic shock therapy
Shock therapy (economics)
In economics, shock therapy refers to the sudden release of price and currency controls, withdrawal of state subsidies, and immediate trade liberalization within a country, usually also including large scale privatization of previously public owned assets....
adopted by the Yeltsin government. From 1992 to 1995 Goldfarb was Director of Operations at Soros' International Science Foundation, which helped sustain tens of thousands of scientists and scholars in the former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
during the harshest three years of economic reform. In 1994 Goldfarb managed Soros' Russian Internet Project, which built infrastructure and provided free Internet access for university campuses across Russia. That project created a controversy because of a conflict with emerging Russian commercial interests in the ISP field. In 1995, during the first months of the First Chechen War
First Chechen War
The First Chechen War, also known as the War in Chechnya, was a conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 to August 1996...
, Goldfarb oversaw a Soros-funded relief operation, which ended disastrously with the disappearance of the American relief worker Fred Cuny
Fred Cuny
Frederick C. Cuny was an American disaster relief specialist who was active in many humanitarian projects around the world from 1969 until his forced disappearance in Chechnya in 1995.-Life and career:...
. From 1998 to 2000 Goldfarb directed the $15 million Soros tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
project in Russia. He worked with Dr. Paul Farmer
Paul Farmer
Dr. Paul Edward Farmer is an American anthropologist and physician. He is currently the Kolokotrones University Professor at Harvard University, formerly the Presley Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, an attending physician and Chief...
to battle TB in Russian prisons, an endeavor described by the Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Kidder
Tracy Kidder
John Tracy Kidder is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer of the 1981 nonfiction narrative, The Soul of a New Machine, about the creation of a new computer at Data General Corporation...
in his bestselling Mountains Beyond Mountains
Mountains Beyond Mountains
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World is a non-fiction, biographical work by American writer Tracy Kidder. The story traces the life of physician and anthropologist Paul Farmer. The book was a New York Times Notable Book for 2003.-External links:*...
.
Soros fired Goldfarb in November 2000 when he learned about his role in the defection of FSB
FSB
FSB may refer to:in business and economics:* Financial Stability Board, an international group of financial authorities* Swedbank, a retail banking group* Fuqua School of Business, a business school...
officer Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko was an officer who served in the Soviet KGB and its Russian successor, the Federal Security Service ....
to the UK.
Association with Boris Berezovsky
Since 2001 Goldfarb has been Executive Director of the New York-based International Foundation for Civil LibertiesInternational Foundation for Civil Liberties
The International Foundation for Civil Liberties is a non-profit organization established by the Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky in November 2000. The Guardian 21 December 2000 Critics see it as an anti-Russian propaganda organization....
, founded and financed by the exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. The foundation has distributed grants among NGOs in Russia, Ukraine and Latvia and has spent nearly $40 million dollars supporting Orange Revolution
Orange Revolution
The Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter...
in Ukraine.
Involvement in the Litvinenko Affair
Goldfarb first met Alexander LitvinenkoAlexander Litvinenko
Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko was an officer who served in the Soviet KGB and its Russian successor, the Federal Security Service ....
during his tuberculosis project in Russian prisons. In October 2000, at the request of Boris Berezovsky, Goldfarb went to Turkey where he met Litvinenko and his family, who had just fled from Russia. Goldfarb arranged their entry to the United Kingdom, an offense under British law, for which he was banned from visiting Britain for a year. When Litvinenko was poisoned in London in 2006, Goldfarb was his unofficial spokesman during the two last weeks of his life On the day of Litvinenko's death, Goldfarb read out his deathbed statement accusing Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
of ordering the poisoning. The Kremlin
Kremlin
A kremlin , same root as in kremen is a major fortified central complex found in historic Russian cities. This word is often used to refer to the best-known one, the Moscow Kremlin, or metonymically to the government that is based there...
has dismissed the allegation as "sheer nonsense". Goldfarb later explained in interviews that he had drafted the statement at Litvinenko's request and that Litvinenko had signed it in the presence of a lawyer. With Berezovsky, Litvinenko's widow Marina, and the human rights lawyer Louise Christian
Louise Christian
Louise Christian is an award-winning British human rights lawyer.She is a frequent contributor to The Guardian.She is the author or co-author of several books.She is the daughter of Jack and Maureen Christian....
, Goldfarb founded the Litvinenko Justice Foundation to campaign for the truth about his murder, and for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
Writings
Goldfarb has published in the editorial pages of the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, and The Moscow Times
The Moscow Times
The Moscow Times is an English-language daily newspaper published in Moscow, Russia since 1992. The circulation in 2008 stood at 35,000 copies and the newspaper is typically given out for free at places English-language "expats" attend, including hotels, cafés and restaurants, as well as by...
. He helped Litvinenko to prepare his book Lubyanka Criminal Group
Lubyanka Criminal Group
Lubyanka Criminal Group is a book by Alexander Litvinenko about the alleged transformation of the Russian Security Services into a criminal and terrorist organization.Lubyanka is known as KGB headquarters...
for publication. He and Marina Litvinenko later co-authored the book "Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB
Death of a Dissident
Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB is a book written by Alexander Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko about the life and death of her husband, former FSB officer, and double-agent Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned by the radioactive element...
", published in Russian as "Sasha, Volodya, Boris....The Story of a Murder." (Russian)http://www.sasha-volodya-boris.com/ http://www.svobodanews.ru/content/article/1999062.html, http://www.svobodanews.ru/content/transcript/1999800.html.
Criticism
Mary Dejevsky, the chief editorial writer of The IndependentThe Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, opined that Goldfarb "expertly fronted" a publicity campaign in the last week of Alexander Litvinenko's life
Alexander Litvinenko poisoning
Alexander Litvinenko was a former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service, FSB and KGB, who escaped prosecution in Russia and received political asylum in the United Kingdom...
and that Berezovsky dictated the view that the British public had of the event. Zhores Medvedev
Zhores Medvedev
Zhores Aleksandrovich Medvedev is a Russian biologist, historian and dissident. His twin brother is the historian Roy Medvedev.-Biography:Zhores Medvedev and his twin brother Roy Medvedev were born on 14 November 1925 in Tbilisi, Georgia, USSR....
has suggested that the U.S. administration recommended Alexander Goldfarb to Boris Berezovsky and that Goldfarb's work for Berezovsky is associated with political plots and lies against Vladimir Putin.Andrey Lugovoy, who is wanted by the British authorities for Litvinenko's murder, has asserted that Goldfarb and Litvinenko ran an illicit operation of fabricating evidence for asylum seekers in the UK. The same allegation made an appearance in a 2010 libel suit won by Boris Berezovsky in which he contested the claim made in a programme broadcast by Russian state television station RTR (now Russia 1) that he had murdered Litvinenko to prevent exposure of his allegedly fraudulent asylum claim. Goldfarb testified at the 2010 London trial, which vindicated Berezovsky.Anatoly Karlin has alleged that Goldfarb orchestrated an anti-Putin campaign around the world on Berezovsky's behalf.
His books
- Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko. Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB.Death of a DissidentDeath of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB is a book written by Alexander Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko about the life and death of her husband, former FSB officer, and double-agent Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned by the radioactive element...
Free Press, New York, 2007. ISBN 978-1-4165-5165-2.
Books mentioning Goldfarb
- Hedrick SmithHedrick SmithHedrick Smith is a Pulitzer Prize-winning former reporter and editor for The New York Times, an Emmy Award-winning producer/correspondent for the PBS show Frontline, and author of several books....
, The Russians, Published in 1984 by Ballantine Books (first published 1973): ISBN 0-345-31746-7 - Nicholas DaniloffNicholas DaniloffNicholas Daniloff is an American journalist who graduated from Harvard University and was most prominent in the 1980s for his reporting on the Soviet Union...
, Two Lives, One Russia, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988: ISBN 0-395-44601-5 - Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003, 2005 edition: ISBN 0-520-24326-9
- Tracy KidderTracy KidderJohn Tracy Kidder is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer of the 1981 nonfiction narrative, The Soul of a New Machine, about the creation of a new computer at Data General Corporation...
, Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul FarmerPaul FarmerDr. Paul Edward Farmer is an American anthropologist and physician. He is currently the Kolokotrones University Professor at Harvard University, formerly the Presley Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, an attending physician and Chief...
, a Man Who Would Cure the World, Random House, 2003 hardcover: ISBN 0-375-50616-0, 2004 paperback: ISBN 0-8129-7301-1 - Alan CowellAlan CowellAlan S. Cowell is a British journalist and a correspondent for The New York Times. Since 2008 he has been senior correspondent for NYTimes.com based in Paris....
, "The Terminal Spy " The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko: A true story of espionage, betrayal and murder. Doubleday 2008. ISBN 978-0-385-52355-4 (US); 9780385614153 (UK)
Goldfarb on TV
- Charlie Rose - A conversation with Marina Litvinenko and Alex Goldfarb
- BBC Hardtalk - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hardtalk/6723863.stm