What do the Russians say about Novichok poisonings?

Russia fiercely denied British accusations over the Skripals’ poisoning, accusing London and other Western nations of using the incident to fan an anti-Russian campaign. It has followed the same path of denial in this summer’s Navalny poisoning.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday called Navalny’s poisoning an attempted murder that aimed to silence one of Putin’s fiercest critics and called for a full investigation, saying “there are very serious questions now that only the Russian government can answer, and must answer.”

Russia, however, has demanded that Germany share its data backing up its conclusion that Navalny was poisoned and has called for a joint investigation effort.

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, insisted Thursday

that “there is no reason to accuse the Russian state” over the poisoning. He said Moscow expects Berlin to provide information that would help a Russian probe into the cause of Navalny’s illness, and that Russia doctors in Siberia, where Navalny was taken after he fell ill on Aug. 20, found no evidence of poisoning.

Sergei Naryshkin, the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, even claimed it can’t be excluded that Navalny’s poisoning was a provocation of Western intelligence agencies.

When was Novichok designed?

The Soviet program to design a new generation of chemical weapons began in the 1970s to counter the latest U.S. chemical weapons.

Soviet leaders wanted the equivalent of U.S. binary weapons — agents made up of relatively harmless components that turn deadly when mixed, making them easier to operate than regular chemical weapons. While Novichokclass poisons were highly lethal, the program was only partly successful, as some of the components were as toxic as the military-grade nerve agents.

The Soviet leadership eventually lost interest in chemical weapons. Novichok-class agents only were manufactured in lab quantities. Vladimir Uglev, a top scientist in the program, has estimated about 100 kilograms (220 pounds) were made.

Is it possible to trace Novichok’s source?

Russian experts who have worked on the Novichok class of agents have warned it may never be possible to determine the nerve agent’s origin.

To determine what specific lab produced a given sample of Novichok, it’s