04.03.18
Novichok and its chemists
Novichok, meaning “new guy,” “newcomer, or “novice,” depending on the translation, the group name for deadly nerve agents created in the Soviet Union in the Seventies and developed into the early Nineties. Deployed in Salisbury, England, novichok has been used to poison ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. Rendering both comatose on a bench on March 4, the attack set off a furious response from emergency workers and chemical weapons experts from Britain’s premier lab on weapons of chemical and biologicla mass destruction, Porton Down. Porton Down subsequently identified the poison used on the Skripals, who were in critical condition, as novichok or a related compound, probably through analysis by gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry.
Who is responsible? It points to Russia, the attack order given from Moscow even though the government there has repeatedly denied involvement and that a program to produce novichok never existed. This was immediately exposed as untrue by scientists/employees of the program who came forward to give their thoughts.
Although the novichok name seems new to a lay audience, it’s been known for a long time …
Read the entire essay/article at SITREP on GlobalSecurity.Org.