Skripal: Theresa May set to hit back Russia over spy attack

Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff

Re: Skripal: Theresa May set to hit back Russia over spy att

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 14, 2018 12:02 pm

Image
I see only a name

and I feel fine

A neighbour of a Russian businessman found dead in London told today how he had witnessed “suspicious” activity outside his home.

Counter-terrorism police are investigating the “unexplained” death of Nikolai Glushkov, 68, who was discovered collapsed at his terraced house in New Malden by his daughter Natalia on Monday night.

A Russian newspaper reported a friend of Mr Glushkov saying that there were “strangulation” marks on his neck and it was not clear if it was murder or suicide.

Mr Glushkov was a former employee and close friend of oligarch Boris Berezovsky, an outspoken Kremlin critic, who was found dead at his home near Ascot in 2013 with a scarf around his neck. A coroner recorded an open verdict.

Glushkov, a former senior Russian executive linked to late Kremlin opponent Boris Berezovsky was found dead in unexplained circumstances (AFP/Getty Images)

Today a neighbour of Mr Glushkov said people in expensive “supercars” had visited the house in recent months.

Glushkov was found collapsed at his New Maldon home by his daughter Natalia
The resident, 35, who did not wanted to be named, said: “There was something strange about the number of supercars pulling up outside the house.

There was a Ferrari and a Lamborghini I believe. One of the cars was yellow and really stuck out. Houses in the road are about £500,000 and people do not have supercars like that. It was all very strange, I am going to report it to the police. The activity was unusual. It makes you wonder if it was connected with what had happened. I was suspicious.”


The address in New Malden which has been sealed-off by police after Russian businessman Nikolai Glushkov was found dead (PA)
Mr Glushkov lived alone in Clarence Drive with a cat and dog. Russian sources in London said he had “no guard, no servants”, according to Russian newspaper Kommersant.

“Allegedly, his daughter who came to visit discovered traces of strangulation on her father’s body,” reported the newspaper,

Mr Glushkov was director of Russian state airline Aeroflot in the Nineties and a close friend of Mr Berezovsky. However, when the billionaire fell out with President Putin in 1999, Mr Glushkov was charged with defrauding Aeroflot and jailed for five years.

After being released he fled to Britbut faced fresh charges of fraud in 2010. He was sentenced to eight years in his absence last year. Mr Glushkov, who feared he was on a Kremlin hit list, was also linked to Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian spy assassinated in London in 2006 as well as Andrei Lugovoi, the Russian MP believed to have carried out the killing.

Scotland Yard said Mr Glushkov’s death was not being linked to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury. The counter-terrorism command unit was leading the investigation into the death “as a precaution”.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/stra ... 89721.html


Soviet Scientist Who Developed Novichok Poison Used on Sergei Skripal: ‘I’m Sorry’

He helped make the secret poison used against a Russian ex-spy. Now Vil Mirzayanov looks on his handiwork with regret.


On Monday, British Prime Minister Theresa May addressed Parliament, accusing the Russians of using a nerve agent to try to kill Sergei Skripal, a Russian military intelligence officer turned British double agent resettled in Salisbury after a spy swap, and his daughter, Yulia.

It is now clear that Mr. Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. This is part of a group of nerve agents known as novichok. Based on the positive identification of this chemical agent by world-leading experts at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down, our knowledge that Russia has previously produced this agent and would still be capable of doing so.

— Prime Minister Theresa May



The person who understands the effects of novichoks best is Vil Mirzayanov, a scientist and later head of Foreign Technical Counterintelligence at the State Scientific Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology (GosNIIOKhT) in Moscow in the 1970s and 1980s, which allegedly produced the shadowy class of binary nerve agents known as the “novichoks” (newcomers). And he has a message for Skripal and his daughter: my bad.

“I’d tell him [Skripal] that I’m very sorry that I participated in the development of these weapons,” Mirzayanov told The Daily Beast.

GosNIIOKhT scientists developed the agents under a program codename “Folio” beginning in the 1980s. Mirzayanov spoke out about the covert program as the Soviet Union fell, earning him a prison term at home before he escaped to exile in the United States.

During the Cold War, the idea that a novichok agent would be used in a covert assassination seemed alien to Mirzayanov and his fellow scientists. The weapons, developed in intense secrecy by Soviet scientists, were originally designed for use in bombs and shells on a battlefield rather than a cloak-and-dagger assassination in a suburb in southern England.

“I couldn’t imagine. No one could imagine. It’s outrageous. We were convinced at the time that we were developing these weapons and testing others for the protection of the country and for defense,” Mirzayanov said. “It was not our goal. None of the scientists supposed that it would be used with terrorist goals. It was a military thing. It was a weapon for mass killing.”

Despite the lethality of novichok agents—reportedly 10 times as powerful as the VX nerve agent used to assassinate Kim Jong Un’s brother in a Malaysian airport—Skripal and his daughter managed to survive the attack and are recuperating in the hospital. But Mirzayanov expects that the two have a long road to recovery.

“If you’re poisoned by a nerve agent, it’s forever,” Mirzayanov said, citing the case of his friend and fellow GosNIIOKhT employee, the late Andrei Zheleznyakov, who was accidentally poisoned by a novichok.

Zheleznyakov received a dose of A-232, a component used in Novichok No. 5, during a laboratory accident in the 1980s. Doctors gave Zheleznyakov atropine, a common nerve agent antidote, and he survived following a lengthy recuperation. But the once vibrant researcher was never the same, according to Mirzayanov: “He wasn’t capable of functioning normally afterwards.” Zheleznyakov reportedly suffered from chronic weakness, epilepsy, liver problems, and difficulty focusing, among other maladies, before his death five years later.

“I’d tell him [Skripal] that I’m very sorry that I participated in the development of these weapons.”

— Vil Mirzayanov

In Skripal’s case, British investigators may have been able to identify the use of a novichok with help from a portable mass spectrometer, according to Mirzayanov. The scientific devices could detect the presence of a novichok if investigators had reliable information on the chemical composition of the nerve agents.

For the prime minister to be able to publicly accuse the Russians of using a nerve agent like a novichok, British authorities at least must have had access to novichok’s unique chemical signature—which it legally could have had despite the Chemical Weapons Convention, due to the clause of countries being able to hold samples for testing in these incidences.

Testing for novichoks, even based on a formula published by Mirzayanov in a memoir based on his work in the 1980s, is a potential sign that the British have potential access to newer variants of the nerve agent.

Gwyn Winfield—the editorial director of CBRNe World magazine, a trade publication for those dealing with chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosive threats—said it’s possible that the Russians continued to develop novichoks in the years after the publication of Mirzayanov’s book. But even then, the British were probably able to reliably gather minute traces with a novichok’s unique chemical signature.

“You’d have to detect the phosphate chain, and they [mass spectrometers] are probably looking at broad families detecting something hazardous in the environment,” Winfield added.

Winfield said it’s also important to note that we don’t yet have any idea what particular novichok variant hit the Skripals and the police officer who responded to them.

When Winfield first heard about the incident, he and other journalists thought it was a fentanyl overdose. “When the Salisbury Hospital shut down, [it was done so for] fentanyl poisoning,” Winfield told The Daily Beast. “That sounded right, that we were looking at two individuals who had overdosed on something.”

Fentanyl wouldn’t be out of the question: Prior to its more recent use in the United States as an opioid, Winfield said the drug has been used for assassination attempts. “It was effective and inefficient, and there was plausible deniability,” he said, pointing out that victims could be thought to have overdosed.

When Prime Minister May came out and said the culprit was novichoks, Winfield said he was surprised, particularly given that Skripal reportedly became aggressive, waved his arms, and pointed to the sky while yelling in Russian, he said. “Those don’t fit into what we know about organophosphate exposures,” Winfield explained—which means that while novichok is being pointed to as the source nerve agent, it’s possible that it was swirled with another drug that produced hallucinogenic qualities that were more similar to a fentanyl poisoning.

“If they wanted to kill me, it would’ve been easy. But God has saved me so far.”

— Vil Mirzayanov

But that’s impossible to confirm, Winfield said. “It might have been a cocktail of drugs, it might have been [Skripal’s] unique physiology,” he surmised.

The business of killing with chemicals is an ugly one and it weighed heavily on Mirzayanov’s conscience in the waning days of the Cold War. The former Soviet scientist once in charge of protecting GosNIIOKhT’s secrets from Western spies began a crusade to eradicate chemical weapons with a Moscow News article and an interview with The Baltimore Sun in 1992.

Mirzayanov told The Daily Beast that representatives from the U.S. intelligence community later urged him not to publish chemical formulas and compounds for the production of novichoks because of concerns about the dissemination of know-how for the powerful weapons.

“The U.S. government doesn’t like me because they can’t use me like a puppet,” he said. “I’m not a puppet. I refuse to cooperate the way they want. I told them, ‘Go to the court and challenge me.’ I believe Russian secrets are not American secrets.”

That we don’t know much about the subsequent development of novichoks after Mirzayanov had access to GosNIIOKhT’s secrets means it’s also hard for us to know how the Skripals got sick. “It could be a gel, vapor, or a liquid,” Winfield said. Nerve agents tend to use corrosive acids, which mean their precursors are usually stored separately, Winfield said, but it’s possible this novichok doesn’t require mixing of chemicals and could be directly applied to a person’s skin or on a surface with “just a pair of gloves,” he said.

Winfield said that at this point, there are more questions than answers about novichoks and how they were used in the Salisbury attack. That Skripal, his daughter, and the police officer lived is also puzzling, given that Mirzayanov said practically no human testing occurred, unlike other nerve agents like sarin and VX. The survival of the victims could be due to human incompetence or their unique physiology, or even the cooler temperatures, that saved them.

With Russian intelligence veterans like Alexander Litvinenko and Sergei Skripal in the crosshairs of assassins, some dissidents are now worried about their own safety. Mirzayanov, 83 years old and living openly in Princeton, New Jersey, is unmoved by the potential threat from the Russian government.

After he spoke out against GosNIIOKhT’s chemical weapons programs, Russian authorities arrested Mirzayanov and put him in the KGB’s notorious Lefortovo Prison in Moscow. He survived, walking out of a place where so many before him had entered but never left.

“If they wanted to kill me, it would’ve been easy,” he says now. “But God has saved me so far.” \https://www.thedailybeast.com/sorry-i-developed-the-weapon-that-poisoned-a-russian-spy


What Is Novichok? The Nerve Agent Russia Allegedly Used in the U.K.

Theresa May said on Wednesday that Moscow was 'culpable' for the poisoning in the English city of Salisbury of a Russian former double agent with Novichok

Reuters Mar 14, 2018 5:25 PM

Police officers stand guard at the bottom of the road where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal lives in Salisbury, England, Tuesday, March 13, 2018
Police officers stand guard at the bottom of the road where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal lives in Salisbury, England, Tuesday, March 13, 2018AP Photo/Matt Dunham
British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday that Moscow was "culpable" for the poisoning in the English city of Salisbury of a Russian former double agent with Novichok, one of the deadliest chemical weapons ever developed. May expelled 23 Russian diplomats in retaliation, the largest move of its kind since the Cold War.

Here is a brief overview of Novichok:

* First developed in the former Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s, Novichok, or "newcomer", is a series of highly toxic nerve agents with a slightly different chemical composition than the more commonly known VX and sarin poison gases. * Novichok agents are believed to be five to 10 times more lethal, although there are no known previous uses. Moscow is not believed to have ever declared Novichok or its ingredients to the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversees a treaty banning their use.

* Novichok, the fourth generation of poison gas, was made with agrochemicals so that offensive weapons production could more readily be hidden within a legitimate commercial industry, according to U.S. chemical weapons expert Amy Smithson.

* Publications about development and testing of Novichok in the 1990s led to U.S. suspicions that the then USSR had a secret weapons program and did not declare all it had in its stockpile when it joined the OPCW. * Russia, along with the United States, once ran one of the largest chemical weapons programs in the world. It completed the destruction of a stockpile declared to the OPCW last year. The United States is in the final stages of destroying its own stockpile.

* Russia was once believed to possess thousands of tonnes of weaponised Novichok varieties and their precursors, according to a 2014 report by the U.S.-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, a non-partisan group working to reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction.

* The chemical "causes a slowing of the heart and restriction of the airways, leading to death by asphyxiation", said pharmacology expert Prof. Gary Stephens at the University of Reading. "One of the main reasons these agents are developed is because their component parts are not on the banned list."

* The weaponisation of any chemical is banned under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, of which Moscow is a signatory. The Salisbury attack was to be raised in closed door sessions of the OPCW's executive council when it begins three days of meetings in The Hague on Tuesday.
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/what-is ... -1.5908067
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: Skripal: Theresa May set to hit back Russia over spy att

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 14, 2018 12:15 pm

It's the Russians, says chemist who uncovered existence of 'Novichok'


Russian chemist Vil Mirzayanov first uncovered in the 1990s the existence of the nerve gas used to attack a former Russian spy in Britain

The Russian chemist who first revealed the existence of "Novichok" nerve agents says only the Russians can be behind the weapon's use in Britain against a former spy and his daughter.

Vil Mirzayanov, 83, came to the United States in 1995 after 30 years of working for the State Scientific Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology, or GNIIOKhT.

It was he who in the early 1990s revealed the existence of that class of ultra-powerful nerve agents.

He did so first in the Russian media as it opened up with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and later, with chemical formulas at hand, in his book "State Secrets," published in 2007.

Former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found slumped on a bench in the English city of Salisbury on March 4. Britain says it is "highly likely" that Moscow was to blame for the nerve agent attack.

Mirzayanov, speaking at his home in Princeton, New Jersey, said he is convinced Russia carried it out as a way of intimidating opponents of President Vladimir Putin.

"Only the Russians" developed this class of nerve agents, said the chemist. "They kept it and are still keeping it in secrecy."

The only other possibility, he said, would be that someone used the formulas in his book to make such a weapon.

- 'Dangerous for the Kremlin' -

He said that the Russians could argue that maybe someone had synthesized them "and they could make me guilty!"

This is the first time the nerve agents, which took 15 years to develop and were tested on animals, have been used to try to kill somebody, Mirzayanov said.

Why now? Mirzayanov said he believes the Kremlin wants to intimidate people, such as enemies of Putin.

For instance, he hypothesized, suppose someone leaves Russia with material that would compromise President Donald Trump in the US probe into whether his 2016 election campaign colluded with Russia in its alleged drive to help him beat Hillary Clinton.

"It's very dangerous for the Kremlin because it is a plot against America," said the chemist. "So they threaten this person, and they say, 'look what happened to Skripal. The same could happen to you.'"

Mirzayanov said Skripal could no longer cause Russia any problems but the Kremlin could have killed him anyway, and in a cruel fashion, just to intimidate potential opponents.

- No cure -

An attack with Novichok agents, which are 10 times stronger than VX, is excruciating and has no cure, he added.

He said half a gram is enough to kill a person who weighs 50 kilos (110 pounds).

Someone exposed to it first has their vision go blurry, and if no antidote is applied are then hit with violent convulsions and can no longer breathe.

"I have seen the effect on animals -- rabbits, dogs. It is awful," he said.

Even if they do not die, Skripal and his daughter will suffer for the rest of their lives, he predicted.

The nerve agents are easy to administer because they are binary, meaning they result from the mix of two substances which on their own are harmless.

So these two parts can be transported with no risk, then blended to make the weapon in a spray gun.

Mirzayanov said that as awful as it has been, the attack in Britain might lead to something good: the UK and other Western countries insisting on Novichok agents being registered in the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, as he has been urging for more than 20 years.

Had these weapons been placed under control the Salisbury attack might not have happened, he said.

Now that Mirzayanov is speaking openly about Novichok, his friends on Facebook and elsewhere are urging him to be careful, lest the Russians seek reprisal against him.

"But I have lived for quite a long time. They cannot stop me. I will work until the end to have Novichok placed under international control," he said.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/russians-says ... 42453.html


This is how nerve agent Novichok destroys your mind and body, even if you survive

Adam LusherTuesday 13 March 2018 16:00 GMT
Soviet military chemist Andrei Zheleznyakov ‘suffered chronic weakness, toxic hepatitis, epilepsy, severe depression, and inability to concentrate’
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/cr ... 53976.html


Counter-terror cops probe death of Russian Nikolai Glushkov in London

skynews14th March 2018


The death of a 68-year-old Russian man in London is being investigated by counter-terrorism officers, Scotland Yard has said.


While officers are not naming him, he is believed to be businessman Nikolai Glushkov, who was top of a list of fugitives from justice published by the Russian embassy which accused him of committing severe financial offences.

Scotland Yard said anti-terror police were investigating his death as a precaution because of associations that the man is believed to have had.

But it said there was no evidence to suggest a link to the incident in Salisbury, adding that the death was being treated as unexplained.

One of Mr Glushkov’s friends was late Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who fled to London in 2000 following a row with Vladimir Putin.

Mr Glushkov, a former deputy director of the Russian airline Aeroflot, had also worked for Mr Berezovsky’s LogoVAZ car company.

After Mr Berezovsky was found hanged in the bathroom of his Berkshire home in March 2013, Mr Glushkov told The Guardian he would never believe his friend took his own life.

An inquest into Mr Berezovsky’s death recorded an open verdict.

Mr Berezovsky was also a friend of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 in London in 2006.

Police and MI5 are expected to examine allegations that a series of deaths on UK soil, including the Berezovsky case, may be linked to Russia.

Sky News’ home affairs correspondent, Mark White, said Mr Glushkov’s home in New Malden, southwest London, was being treated as a crime scene. Officers were called by the London Ambulance Service at 10.46pm on Monday.

Local resident Tracy Broadfield said the police presence was very large.

Neighbour Patricia Egan said Mr Glushkov had lived there for several years, describing him as well educated and a lovely fellow.

His daughter used to call – she was in her 20s I think, she added.

The body was removed at about 8.15pm on Tuesday and taken away in a private ambulance.

Mr Glushkov was arrested in 1999 and put on trial for allegedly embezzling $7m from Aeroflot, and sentenced in 2004 to three years, three months in prison.

Russian media said he was granted political asylum in Britain in 2010.

But his case was revived by a Moscow court last year, which sentenced him in absentia to eight years for allegedly embezzling more than $122m from Aeroflot.

The Russian embassy said it had sought Mr Glushkov’s extradition in 2015 for committing a number of severe financial offences on the territory of Russia, but the British government refused.
https://iwradio.co.uk/2018/03/14/counte ... in-london/
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: Skripal: Theresa May set to hit back Russia over spy att

Postby Rory » Wed Mar 14, 2018 12:20 pm

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives ... 1RB0rOdm5E

As recently as 2016 Dr Robin Black, Head of the Detection Laboratory at the UK’s only chemical weapons facility at Porton Down, a former colleague of Dr David Kelly, published in an extremely prestigious scientific journal that the evidence for the existence of Novichoks was scant and their composition unknown.

In recent years, there has been much speculation that a fourth generation of nerve agents, ‘Novichoks’ (newcomer), was developed in Russia, beginning in the 1970s as part of the ‘Foliant’ programme, with the aim of finding agents that would compromise defensive countermeasures. Information on these compounds has been sparse in the public domain, mostly originating from a dissident Russian military chemist, Vil Mirzayanov. No independent confirmation of the structures or the properties of such compounds has been published. (Black, 2016)

Robin Black. (2016) Development, Historical Use and Properties of Chemical Warfare Agents. Royal Society of Chemistry

Yet now, the British Government is claiming to be able instantly to identify a substance which its only biological weapons research centre has never seen before and was unsure of its existence. Worse, it claims to be able not only to identify it, but to pinpoint its origin. Given Dr Black’s publication, it is plain that claim cannot be true.

The world’s international chemical weapons experts share Dr Black’s opinion. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is a UN body based in the Hague. In 2013 this was the report of its Scientific Advisory Board, which included US, French, German and Russian government representatives and on which Dr Black was the UK representative:

[The SAB] emphasised that the definition of toxic chemicals in the Convention would cover all potential candidate chemicals that might be utilised as chemical weapons. Regarding new toxic chemicals not listed in the Annex on Chemicals but which may nevertheless pose a risk to the Convention, the SAB makes reference to “Novichoks”. The name “Novichok” is used in a publication of a former Soviet scientist who reported investigating a new class of nerve agents suitable for use as binary chemical weapons. The SAB states that it has insufficient information to comment on the existence or properties of “Novichoks”. (OPCW, 2013)

OPCW: Report of the Scientific Advisory Board on developments in science and technology for the Third Review Conference 27 March 2013

Indeed the OPCW was so sceptical of the viability of “novichoks” that it decided – with US and UK agreement – not to add them nor their alleged precursors to its banned list. In short, the scientific community broadly accepts Mirzayanov was working on “novichoks” but doubts he succeeded.

Given that the OPCW has taken the view the evidence for the existence of “Novichoks” is dubious, if the UK actually has a sample of one it is extremely important the UK presents that sample to the OPCW. Indeed the UK has a binding treaty obligation to present that sample to OPCW. Russa has – unreported by the corporate media – entered a demand at the OPCW that Britain submit a sample of the Salisbury material for international analysis.

Yet Britain refuses to submit it to the OPCW.

Why?

A second part of May’s accusation is that “Novichoks” could only be made in certain military installations. But that is also demonstrably untrue. If they exist at all, Novichoks were allegedly designed to be able to be made at bench level in any commercial chemical facility – that was a major point of them. The only real evidence for the existence of Novichoks was the testimony of the ex-Soviet scientist Mizayanov. And this is what Mirzayanov actually wrote.

One should be mindful that the chemical components or precursors of A-232 or its binary version novichok-5 are ordinary organophosphates that can be made at commercial chemical companies that manufacture such products as fertilizers and pesticides.

Vil S. Mirzayanov, “Dismantling the Soviet/Russian Chemical Weapons Complex: An Insider’s View,” in Amy E. Smithson, Dr. Vil S. Mirzayanov, Gen Roland Lajoie, and Michael Krepon, Chemical Weapons Disarmament in Russia: Problems and Prospects, Stimson Report No. 17, October 1995, p. 21.

It is a scientific impossibility for Porton Down to have been able to test for novichoks, without possessing some to develop the tests. As Dr Black has revealed Porton Down had never seen any Russian novichok, they cannot have a test for it unless they synthesised some themselves to develop the tests. And if they can synthesise it, so can many others, not just the Russians.

And finally – Mirzayanov is an Uzbek name and the novichok programme, assuming it existed, was in the Soviet Union but far away from modern Russia, at Nukus in modern Uzbekistan. I have visited the Nukus chemical weapons site myself. It was dismantled and made safe and all the stocks destroyed and the equipment removed by the American government, as I recall finishing while I was Ambassador there. There has in fact never been any evidence that any “novichok” ever existed in Russia itself.

To summarise:

1) Porton Down has acknowledged in publications it has never seen any Russian “novichoks”. The UK government has absolutely no “fingerprint” information that can safely attribute this substance to Russia.
2) Until now, neither Porton Down nor the world’s experts at the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) were convinced “Novichoks” even exist.
3) The UK is refusing to provide a sample to the OPCW.
4) “Novichoks” were specifically designed to be able to be manufactured from common ingredients on any scientific bench. The Americans dismantled and studied the facility that allegedly developed them. It is completely untrue only the Russians could make them, if anybody can.
5) The “Novichok” programme was in Uzbekistan not in Russia. Its legacy was inherited by the Americans during their alliance with Karimov, not by the Russians.

With a great many thanks to sources who cannot be named at this moment.
Rory
 
Posts: 1596
Joined: Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:08 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Skripal: Theresa May set to hit back Russia over spy att

Postby 0_0 » Wed Mar 14, 2018 12:34 pm

playmobil of the gods
0_0
 
Posts: 615
Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2012 9:13 am
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Skripal: Theresa May set to hit back Russia over spy att

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 14, 2018 12:38 pm

Image


Spy poisoning: why Putin may have engineered gruesome calling card

Insiders say all trails lead back to Moscow, suggesting a deliberate act to incite row with UK

Andrew Roth
The response from the Kremlin has been uncompromising. The foreign ministry described Theresa May’s accusation against Moscow as a “circus show”. Its boss Sergei Lavrov said there was no proof the poison used against Sergei Skripal came from Russia. And the embassy in London promised an “equal and opposite reaction” to any UK measures.

Beneath this bluster, however, is cool calculation. Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in Salisbury with a Moscow-made military nerve agent, developed during the 1970s and 1980s during the cold war. Whoever wanted to murder him might have used a subtler weapon. Instead, his assassins picked novichok. How it was deployed remains unclear.

One former employee of the Russian special services said nerve agents were used only if the goal was to draw attention. “This is a very dirty method. There’s a risk of contaminating other people, which creates additional difficulties,” he told the Kommersant newspaper, adding: “There are far more delicate methods that professionals use.”

In other words, novichok was a gruesome calling card. As those who organised the hit must have known, the trail goes directly back to Moscow. The incident even took place down the road from Porton Down, the government’s military research base, which swiftly tested and identified the toxin.

All of which means Vladimir Putin and his FSB spy agency have probably sought to engineer a confrontation with the UK. Why now?

There are many theories. The most obvious answer is Sunday’s presidential election. True, Putin is guaranteed to win. He has scarcely bothered campaigning. But the Kremlin remains worried about turnout, amid widespread voter apathy and calls from Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition politician, to boycott the vote. The authorities want to the poll to look authentic, even if it isn’t.

Putin and Trump.
On Tuesday, Donald Trump broke his silence about Russia’s probable role in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP
Over the next few days, state TV channels will pump out this message: Moscow is again the victim of a western conspiracy. Russia under siege is a favourite Kremlin theme. Conflicts with the west can bear some fruit: Putin has maintained the bump in his nominal popularity rating after his annexation of Crimea, despite western condemnation and sanctions. The wave of patriotism that followed also split the Russian opposition.

So a row with London can do Putin no harm, especially among voters who share his uncompromising nationalist worldview and his smouldering sense of victimhood.

One former senior Foreign Office adviser said it was a mistake to assume that Skripal’s spy work for MI6 triggered the decision to poison him in Salisbury. Skripal was merely the “instrument”. The real target was the UK, he said. “I don’t think it was about Skripal. It was a geo-political intervention.”

The adviser added: “Moscow’s goal is to demonstrate the UK’s weakness and isolation and to drive a wedge between us and other countries. The Kremlin understands how to make these sorts of interventions at just below the level that will trigger a serious collective reaction against them.”

If May fails to react adequately, she would appear weak. If she tries to fight back against Russia, she would discover the limits of collective solidarity, the adviser suggested.

There are other theories. Grigol Chkhartishvili, best known for writing detective novels under the pen name Boris Akunin, suggested Putin was betting on a British retaliation that would drive wealthy and prominent Russians out of London. The community of Russian émigrés (and families of wealthy businessmen and officials) was “one of the weak points of the regime”, he wrote, and forcing them out would be “useful and beneficial” for Putin.

Timeline
Poisoned umbrellas and polonium: Russian-linked UK deaths

There has been some outrage from EU capitals. Belgium’s former premier Guy Verhofstadt called for a common European response and said EU leaders should discuss the incident at a summit next week. But given Brexit, Europe’s response is likely to be limited when it comes to practical retaliation.

Until Tuesday evening, Donald Trump had remained silent over the Kremlin’s probable role. He has since told Theresa May in a phone call that his support is conditional on the facts supporting her case. Downing Street said Trump had agreed that “the Russian government must provide unambiguous answers as to how this nerve agent came to be used”.

Until then, only one senior member of his administration had acknowledged that Russia could be responsible: Rex Tillerson. On Tuesday Trump fired Tillerson as secretary of state, underlining that May is likely to receive little or no help from the US, once the UK’s closest ally.

The Skripal attack also appears to have been calculated for its domestic impact. It sends a chilling message to anyone from inside Russia’s spy agencies and bureaucracy thinking of cooperating with western intelligence. The message: that the state can mete out punishment at its own pleasure and in the most barbaric way. Oh, and your family might suffer too.

Moscow’s covert operation to support Trump during the 2016 US election was a large enterprise. It involved career intelligence officers, cyber-criminals and professional trolls. Only Putin and a few top officials know its full scope. But a wider group of individuals understand parts.

Anyone thinking of cooperating with Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating collusion, will think twice.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... lling-card
Last edited by seemslikeadream on Wed Mar 14, 2018 12:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: Skripal: Theresa May set to hit back Russia over spy att

Postby Sounder » Wed Mar 14, 2018 12:39 pm



been here at RI from DAY ONE 14 years never put anyone on ignore until now..


That's fine, personally I like people that think differently than myself, makes me think. But each to his/her own.

It understandable SLAD would put me on ignore as it is very unpleasant to be called a xenophobe, but it does show that this category or word still has power and you gotta like that.

And it is not only SLAD, it is anybody that renders a guilty verdict on the foreigner with no consideration of locally generated alternatives that are designed to build up then exploit MSM generated and therefor socially acceptable xenophobia.

Hell, many of my friends are guilty of this because so many are still passive consumers of agenda setting MSM.

Even after the decimation of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, still people fall for more of it.

It's odd.


Rory wrote...
I'm amazed every time, which just goes to show you how vulnerable we all are to unconscious drives despite "knowing better".


One thing that lunarmoth wrote has stuck with me. She said something like; "The latter days will be marked by a struggle between those who are acting out their unconscious programming and those trying to work through their unconscious programming."

Because we are social animals, the questioning of socially reinforced beliefs can be quite risky to ones reputation. SLAD reminded me of our earlier run in around CC and I did enjoy reading my response to you at the time. I appreciate the opportunity you created for me, so there was never any reason for ill will. Like I said, I like people that think differently than myself and only wish that more people enjoyed the variety that I enjoy.

But I do suppose that beliefs are much easier to maintain than the effort needed to question.

Rory wrote...
This particular case defies belief. I haven't seen any argument for Russian involvement that's stands up to scrutiny.


No need, as long as emotionalism can be kept pumped up, there is no need to even be subject to scrutiny. The noise to signal ratio is near infinite ATM.

Rory wrote...
The facile, one dimensional evil evilness of the so called murderers wouldn't pass muster in a Disney movie. On top of that, the Russians are so much of a threat that we need to go to war footing, yet are cartoonishly hamfisted in their execution it beggars belief.

The ludicrous narrative around Dr Kelly's untimely death was far more believable than this tosh
All these things will continue as long as coercion remains a central element of our mentality.
Sounder
 
Posts: 4054
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 8:49 am
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Skripal: Theresa May set to hit back Russia over spy att

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 14, 2018 12:42 pm

Marina Litvinenko: Russians in UK feel 'very unsafe' after nerve agent attack
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/08/europe/m ... index.html


Who Poisoned Alexander Litvinenko? Radioactive thallium link
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=9355
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: Skripal: Theresa May set to hit back Russia over spy att

Postby 0_0 » Wed Mar 14, 2018 12:46 pm

from the above article:

There are other theories. Grigol Chkhartishvili, best known for writing detective novels under the pen name Boris Akunin, suggested Putin was betting on a British retaliation that would drive wealthy and prominent Russians out of London. The community of Russian émigrés (and families of wealthy businessmen and officials) was “one of the weak points of the regime”, he wrote, and forcing them out would be “useful and beneficial” for Putin.


made me lol; omg lol this one is even funnier:

In other words, novichok was a gruesome calling card. As those who organised the hit must have known, the trail goes directly back to Moscow. The incident even took place down the road from Porton Down, the government’s military research base, which swiftly tested and identified the toxin.


took place across the road from the uk governemnt military research base, used as argument to show trail goes directly back to russia hehe.. what about the conclusion:

Moscow’s covert operation to support Trump during the 2016 US election was a large enterprise. It involved career intelligence officers, cyber-criminals and professional trolls. Only Putin and a few top officials know its full scope. But a wider group of individuals understand parts.


looooooool quality stuff!
playmobil of the gods
0_0
 
Posts: 615
Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2012 9:13 am
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Skripal: Theresa May set to hit back Russia over spy att

Postby Rory » Wed Mar 14, 2018 12:56 pm

Sounder » Wed Mar 14, 2018 8:39 am wrote:


been here at RI from DAY ONE 14 years never put anyone on ignore until now..


That's fine, personally I like people that think differently than myself, makes me think. But each to his/her own.

It understandable SLAD would put me on ignore as it is very unpleasant to be called a xenophobe, but it does show that this category or word still has power and you gotta like that.

And it is not only SLAD, it is anybody that renders a guilty verdict on the foreigner with no consideration of locally generated alternatives that are designed to build up then exploit MSM generated and therefor socially acceptable xenophobia.

Hell, many of my friends are guilty of this because so many are still passive consumers of agenda setting MSM.

Even after the decimation of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, still people fall for more of it.

It's odd.


Rory wrote...
I'm amazed every time, which just goes to show you how vulnerable we all are to unconscious drives despite "knowing better".


One thing that lunarmoth wrote has stuck with me. She said something like; "The latter days will be marked by a struggle between those who are acting out their unconscious programming and those trying to work through their unconscious programming."

Because we are social animals, the questioning of socially reinforced beliefs can be quite risky to ones reputation. SLAD reminded me of our earlier run in around CC and I did enjoy reading my response to you at the time. I appreciate the opportunity you created for me, so there was never any reason for ill will. Like I said, I like people that think differently than myself and only wish that more people enjoyed the variety that I enjoy.

But I do suppose that beliefs are much easier to maintain than the effort needed to question.

Rory wrote...
This particular case defies belief. I haven't seen any argument for Russian involvement that's stands up to scrutiny.


No need, as long as emotionalism can be kept pumped up, there is no need to even be subject to scrutiny. The noise to signal ratio is near infinite ATM.

Rory wrote...
The facile, one dimensional evil evilness of the so called murderers wouldn't pass muster in a Disney movie. On top of that, the Russians are so much of a threat that we need to go to war footing, yet are cartoonishly hamfisted in their execution it beggars belief.

The ludicrous narrative around Dr Kelly's untimely death was far more believable than this tosh


Yes, I remember the cc thread in question. Sorry for acting the cad, fwiw.

I guess for me the particularly novel trait recently, is how much earlier programming (fear of the orient, red peril, Russian "Evil Empire" related work) is being utilized so successfully. All the primary work was done decades ago, but it's interesting how these latent biases and phobias have been revived so effectively.

It really is a marvel of human brain function, and fascinating insight into how deep and long the game being played really is.
Last edited by Rory on Wed Mar 14, 2018 4:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Rory
 
Posts: 1596
Joined: Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:08 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Skripal: Theresa May set to hit back Russia over spy att

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 14, 2018 12:56 pm

The UK sanctions imposed on Russia by Theresa May

Prime minister has announced a range of measures after the poisoning of Sergei Skripal

Haroon SiddiqueWed 14 Mar 2018 09.15 EDT

Theresa May has announced the following measures against Russia after the Kremlin failed to provide an explanation as to how and why the former spy, Sergei Skripal, was poisoned by a Russian-manufactured nerve agent:

The expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats. They will be given one week to leave. May described it as the biggest single expulsion in 30 years.
The government will enact a new targeted power to detain people suspected of hostile state activity at borders. This power was previously limited to suspected terrorists.
The UK will increase checks on private flights, customs and freight from Russia.
The UK will freeze Russian assets if there is evidence they are being used to compromise British security.
There will be legislation to protect the UK from hostile state activity. This will include increasing powers in the sanctions bill.
The government will look at whether new counter-espionage powers are needed.
The UK has suspended all high-level diplomatic contact with Russia. This includes revoking an invitation to the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and there will be no attendance by government ministers or members of the royal family at this summer’s World Cup in Russia.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... heresa-may


Theresa May's Russia statement in full as she expels 23 spies over nerve agent attack

Samuel OsborneWednesday 14 March 2018 15:35 GMT
Theresa May has said Britain will expel 23 Russian diplomats in response to the nerve toxin attack on former spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.

The Prime Minister told MPs the individuals had been identified as undeclared spies.

They have been given a week to leave.

She said it would be the biggest single expulsion in over 30 years.

Theresa May’s statement to the House of Commons

With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to make a Statement on the response of the Russian government to the incident in Salisbury.

First, on behalf of the whole House, let me pay tribute once again to the bravery and professionalism of all the emergency services, doctors, nurses and investigation teams who have led the response to this appalling incident.

And also to the fortitude of the people of Salisbury. Let me reassure them that – as Public Health England have made clear – the ongoing risk to public health is low. And the Government will continue to do everything possible to support this historic city to recover fully.

Mr Speaker, on Monday I set out that Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a Novichok: a military grade nerve agent developed by Russia.

Based on this capability, combined with their record of conducting state sponsored assassinations – including against former intelligence officers whom they regard as legitimate targets – the UK Government concluded it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for this reckless and despicable act.

And there were only two plausible explanations.

Either this was a direct act by the Russian State against our country.

Or conceivably, the Russian government could have lost control of a military-grade nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others.

Mr Speaker, it was right to offer Russia the opportunity to provide an explanation.

But their response has demonstrated complete disdain for the gravity of these events.

They have provided no credible explanation that could suggest they lost control of their nerve agent.

No explanation as to how this agent came to be used in the United Kingdom; no explanation as to why Russia has an undeclared chemical weapons programme in contravention of international law.

Instead they have treated the use of a military grade nerve agent in Europe with sarcasm, contempt and defiance.

So Mr Speaker, there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian State was culpable for the attempted murder of Mr Skripal and his daughter – and for threatening the lives of other British citizens in Salisbury, including Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey.

This represents an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom.

And as I set out on Monday it has taken place against the backdrop of a well-established pattern of Russian State aggression across Europe and beyond.

It must therefore be met with a full and robust response – beyond the actions we have already taken since the murder of Mr [Alexander] Litvinenko and to counter this pattern of Russian aggression elsewhere.

As the discussion in this House on Monday made clear, it is essential that we now come together – with our allies – to defend our security, to stand up for our values and to send a clear message to those who would seek to undermine them.

This morning I chaired a further meeting of the National Security Council, where we agreed…

…immediate actions to dismantle the Russian espionage network in the UK…

…urgent work to develop new powers to tackle all forms of hostile state activity and to ensure that those seeking to carry out such activity cannot enter the UK…

…and additional steps to suspend all planned high-level contacts between the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation.

Let me start with the immediate actions.

Mr Speaker, the House will recall that following the murder of Mr Litvinenko, the UK expelled four diplomats.

Under the Vienna Convention, the United Kingdom will now expel 23 Russian diplomats who have been identified as undeclared intelligence officers.

They have just one week to leave.

This will be the single biggest expulsion for over thirty years and it reflects the fact that this is not the first time that the Russian State has acted against our country.

Through these expulsions we will fundamentally degrade Russian intelligence capability in the UK for years to come. And if they seek to rebuild it, we will prevent them from doing so.

Second, we will urgently develop proposals for new legislative powers to harden our defences against all forms of Hostile State Activity.

This will include the addition of a targeted power to detain those suspected of Hostile State Activity at the UK border. This power is currently only permitted in relation to those suspected of terrorism.

And I have asked the Home Secretary to consider whether there is a need for new counter-espionage powers to clamp down on the full spectrum of hostile activities of foreign agents in our country.

Skripal attack aftermath – in pictures

Mr Speaker, as I set out on Monday we will also table a Government amendment to the Sanctions Bill to strengthen our powers to impose sanctions in response to the violation of human rights.

In doing so, we will play our part in an international effort to punish those responsible for the sorts of abuses suffered by Sergei Magnitsky.

And I hope – as with all the measures I am setting out today – that this will command cross-party support.

Mr Speaker, we will also make full use of existing powers to enhance our efforts to monitor and track the intentions of those travelling to the UK who could be engaged in activity that threatens the security of the UK and of our allies.

So we will increase checks on private flights, customs and freight.

We will freeze Russian State assets wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents.

And led by the National Crime Agency, we will continue to bring all the capabilities of UK law enforcement to bear against serious criminals and corrupt elites. There is no place for these people – or their money – in our country.

Mr Speaker, let me be clear.

While our response must be robust it must also remain true to our values – as a liberal democracy that believes in the rule of law.

Many Russians have made this country their home, abide by our laws and make an important contribution to our country which we must continue to welcome.

But to those who seek to do us harm, my message is simple: you are not welcome here.

Mr Speaker, let me turn to our bilateral relationship.

As I said on Monday, we have had a very simple approach to Russia: Engage but beware.

And I continue to believe it is not in our national interest to break off all dialogue between the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation.

But in the aftermath of this appalling act against our country, this relationship cannot be the same.

So we will suspend all planned high level bilateral contacts between the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation.

This includes revoking the invitation to Foreign Minister [Sergei] Lavrov to pay a reciprocal visit to the United Kingdom...

…and confirming there will be no attendance by Ministers – or indeed Members of the Royal Family – at this Summer’s World Cup in Russia.

Finally, Mr Speaker, we will deploy a range of tools from across the full breadth of our National Security apparatus in order to counter the threats of Hostile State Activity.

While I have set out some of those measures today, Members on all sides will understand that there are some that cannot be shared publicly for reasons of National Security.

And, of course, there are other measures we stand ready to deploy at any time, should we face further Russian provocation.

Mr Speaker, none of the actions we take are intended to damage legitimate activity or prevent contacts between our populations.

We have no disagreement with the people of Russia who have been responsible for so many great achievements throughout their history.

Many of us looked at a post-Soviet Russia with hope. We wanted a better relationship and it is tragic that President [Vladimir] Putin has chosen to act in this way.

But we will not tolerate the threat to life of British people and others on British soil from the Russian Government. Nor will we tolerate such a flagrant breach of Russia’s international obligations.

Mr Speaker, as I set out on Monday, the United Kingdom does not stand alone in confronting Russian aggression.

In the last twenty-four hours I have spoken to President [Donald] Trump, Chancellor [Angela] Merkel and President [Emmanuel] Macron.

We have agreed to co-operate closely in responding to this barbaric act and to co-ordinate our efforts to stand up for the rules based international order which Russia seeks to undermine.

I will also speak to other allies and partners in the coming days.

And I welcome the strong expressions of support from Nato and from partners across the European Union and beyond.

Later today in New York, the UN Security Council will hold open consultations where we will be pushing for a robust international response.

We have also notified the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons about Russia’s use of this nerve agent. And we are working with the police to enable the OPCW to independently verify our analysis.

Mr Speaker, this was not just an act of attempted murder in Salisbury – nor just an act against UK.

It is an affront to the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons.

And it is an affront to the rules based system on which we and our international partners depend.

We will work with our allies and partners to confront such actions wherever they threaten our security, at home and abroad.

And I commend this Statement to the House.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 55661.html
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: Skripal: Theresa May set to hit back Russia over spy att

Postby minime » Wed Mar 14, 2018 1:01 pm

Rory: I'm amazed every time, which just goes to show you how vulnerable we all are to unconscious drives despite "knowing better".


Sounder: One thing that lunarmoth wrote has stuck with me. She said something like; "The latter days will be marked by a struggle between those who are acting out their unconscious programming and those trying to work through their unconscious programming."


"Because we 'know better'. And each doing both at once. Something, something...

Carl Jung: …the only person who escapes the grim law of enantiodromia is the man who knows how to separate himself from the unconscious, not by repressing it—for then it simply attacks him from the rear—but by putting it clearly before him as that which he is not.
User avatar
minime
 
Posts: 1095
Joined: Sun Aug 18, 2013 2:01 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Skripal: Theresa May set to hit back Russia over spy att

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 14, 2018 1:06 pm

I am just a child who has never grown up. I still keep asking these 'how' and 'why' questions. Occasionally, I find an answer.

Stephen Hawking
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: Skripal: Theresa May set to hit back Russia over spy att

Postby Sounder » Wed Mar 14, 2018 1:41 pm

Carl Jung:
…the only person who escapes the grim law of enantiodromia is the man who knows how to separate himself from the unconscious, not by repressing it—for then it simply attacks him from the rear—but by putting it clearly before him as that which he is not.


Thanks for the Jung quote minime. I may have not done proper justice to what lunarmoth said but when I looked back I did not find the actual quote. I do like Jungs notion of 'putting it clearly before him as that which he is not', but then why does the unconscious seem to be such a large element in the expression of our being?

on edit, wrote in haste. the unconscious is a large element because it absolves folk from doing their own thinking while providing a story line facilitating new forms of hate for people that claim to be over the hate virus. No room for hate here, right?
Jung implies the escape does not happen very often.

Here's to you in our mutual quest to escape the grim law of enantiodromia.

Rory, you did me a favor, so no need to apologize.
Last edited by Sounder on Wed Mar 14, 2018 2:00 pm, edited 2 times in total.
All these things will continue as long as coercion remains a central element of our mentality.
Sounder
 
Posts: 4054
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 8:49 am
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Skripal: Theresa May set to hit back Russia over spy att

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 14, 2018 1:47 pm

Image
Nikolai Glushkov (left) with Boris Berezovsky (centre) and Badri Patarkatsishvili (right). All three died in mysterious circumstances in the UK

Image
All three had ties to Andrei Lugovoy (pictured) - a former KGB officer wanted in Britain as the prime suspect the murder of Alexander Litvinenko
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: Skripal: Theresa May set to hit back Russia over spy att

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 14, 2018 9:24 pm

Nerve Agent Found In U.K. Is Rare And Definitely Russian

March 12, 20185:18 PM ET
GEOFF BRUMFIEL


Military personnel wearing protective suits investigate the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, remain critically ill.
Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images
The type of nerve agent used to poison a former Russian spy and his daughter in the U.K. was developed in a top-secret laboratory in Moscow and was once a closely held secret of the Russian government.


Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found slumped on a bench in the city of Salisbury on March 4. Experts quickly assessed that Skripal — a former Russian intelligence official accused of spying for the British — had been poisoned with a nerve agent.

On Monday, British Prime Minister Theresa May named the agent in a speech before Parliament.

"It is now clear that Mr. Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia," she said. "This is part of a group of nerve agents known as Novichok."

Novichok agents are extremely rare.

"As far as I know, I don't know anybody who knows how to make it except these guys in Russia," says Dan Kaszeta, a chemical weapons expert with Strongpoint Security in London. "They've been a deep, dark secret."

Novichok means "newcomer" in Russian. Kaszeta says that Novichok agents were developed in the 1980s as a new weapon in the waning days of the Cold War. Novichok chemicals were designed to evade equipment carried by NATO troops. "They wanted to develop nerve agents that the West couldn't detect," he says.

According to a defector's report published by the Stimson Center in 1995, they were developed at the State Scientific Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology in Moscow. As the U.S. and Russia were laying the groundwork to dismantle their chemical weapons stockpiles, researchers at the institute were working in secret to develop the new Novichok chemicals.

According to the report, by a former scientist named Vil Mirzayanov, the agents were similar to deadly nerve agents but far more powerful. They were also designed to be made using commercially available chemicals, organophosphates, used in fertilizers and pesticides.

The goal was to develop a new class of nerve agents that could be stockpiled in secret, even as the U.S. and Russia pledged to destroy their existing chemical weapons.

According to Mirzaryanov's report, several new agents emerged from the Novichok program. One, known as Novichok-5, was five to eight times as deadly as the agent VX, which was used last year to kill the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

In 1997, the Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force, and Russia began dismantling most of its chemical stocks. It is believed that the Novichok program was never declared. Mirzayanov's report from two years earlier stated that several tons of "experimental" agents were produced.

As to why anyone would use such an unusual agent, Kaszeta says he's not sure. It's possible, given the historic secrecy around the program, that the culprit might have thought it would go undetected. "Maybe somebody somewhere felt they could get away with it," he says.

Then again, he says, it could have just as well been used to send a clear message to would-be spies and defectors: "It's much more than waking up with a horse head in your bed."
https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/ ... ly-russian
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

PreviousNext

Return to General Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 53 guests