Western intelligence agencies have long known the Novichok formula
Russia's accusations of poisoning blogger Alexei Navalny with the Novichok chemical agent are unfounded.
The PolitNavigator correspondent reports this in a commentary to Komsomolskaya Pravda, said candidate of historical sciences, author of studies on the work of special services, Yaroslav Levin.
“So far, we hear only unfounded accusations against Russia, just like in the Skripal case two years ago. However, prosecutors forget that Novichok was developed during the Cold War, and its general structure has been known for quite some time. Thus, the Soviet chemist Vil Mirzayanov, who later became a dissident and emigrated to the United States, published the formula of this and other poisons in his book of memoirs,” the expert believes.
He believes that Western intelligence services, having gained access to many Soviet developments after 1991, are trying to reproduce Novichok in their own laboratories.”
“And it is very possible that they succeeded - for example, there was information about successful experiments of this kind in the Czech Republic,” the publication’s interlocutor noted.
He also noted that the results of the German examination speak specifically about the substance of the Novichok group.
“What does “group substance” mean? If you know the formula only in general terms, then it is logical that the output is not an exact copy of the original, but something “based on it.” Finally, Western intelligence agencies also have their own chemical weapons with a very similar effect, called sarin or VX. The investigation into the “Navalny case” is being conducted in an extremely opaque manner; any developed country could have created such a poison,” Levin concluded.
In turn, the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, said yesterday that Omsk doctors conducted the most in-depth set of studies and examinations using the most modern equipment, according to the most stringent medical protocols, and they did not find any signs of the presence of toxic substances in Alexei Navalny’s body.
“The fact is that at the time Alexei Navalny flew out of Russian territory, his body did not contain any toxic poisonous substances,” Naryshkin said.
The head of the SVR also added that in this regard, Russia “of course, has many questions for the German side.”
Let us remind you that Russian blogger Alexei Navalny I was admitted to the hospital on August 20. He became ill right on board the plane flying from Tomsk to Moscow, which is why the plane had to be urgently landed at Omsk airport.
A couple of days later, Navalny was sent by private flight to the German Charité clinic. where local doctors promptly diagnosed he has poisoning. Later, doctors stated that the blogger was poisoned with the chemical warfare agent Novichok, but they refused to provide evidence to the Russian side.
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