Smirnov died in November 5, 2004, leaving his wife to run the Institute. Smirnov proposed piping subliminal messages from sect members' families through the phone lines during negotiations so as to effect the surrender of David Koresh, however the FBI declined the plan. The FBI consulted Smirnov regarding the Waco Siege in 1993.

The Institute caught the attention of Chris Morris and Janet Morris who were reportedly attempting to sell technology to the United States military. He founded the Psychotechnology Research Institute at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia to work on ideas like 'psychocorrection', a term he used to denote the use of subliminal messages to alter a subject's will, or even modify a person's personality without their knowledge.

Smirnov's background included military research, and the care of drug addiction and mental illness. According to his wife Rusalkina, the Soviet military enlisted Smirnov's psychotechnology in the 1980s to combat the Mujahideen and treat post-traumatic stress syndrome in Russian soldiers during the war in Afghanistan. Smirnov has been characterized in the media as a Rasputin-like character with 'almost mystical powers of persuasion'. He was a son of Soviet Minister of State Security Viktor Abakumov, who was executed for his role in Josef Stalin's political repressions.

Igor Viktorovich Smirnov ( Russian: Абакумов Игорь Викторович, Смирнов Игорь Викторович) (Ap– November 5, 2004) was a controversial Russian scientist best known for his role in Soviet-era mind control research as well as an obscure field of human behavior study he called 'psychoecology'.

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