Putin must have known of attack, experts say

No one could poison such a high profile target as Alexei Navalny without approval from Russian president Vladimir Putin, one expert said last night.

Professor Nikolai Petrov, senior research follow for the Russia and Eurasia Programme at the Chatham House think tank, said the opposition politician has been attacked several times previously and his a long list of potential people with a grudge against him.

Prof Petrov said: “Nobody inspires such hostility and fear as Navalny. It is like the mafia: Nothing can be done without the approval and guarantee of impunity of the boss. I am not saying Putin gave a direct order to poison him, but nobody can act unless they are sure that the boss will be happy and won’t punish them.”

Novichok was developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s as a new kind of chemical weapon that would be harder to detect, more potent and exempt from the Chemical Weapons Treaty.

According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, there is no record of Novichok having been declared by any nation.

“Unless you are working for the military, it is impossible to be accidentally exposed,” said Richard Parsons, a senior lecturer in biochemical toxicology at King’s College London.