Military Grade Nerve Agent used in assassination attempt.

[waltky]

Russians poison ex-spy on British soil...

Nerve Agent Found In U.K. Is Rare And Definitely Russian
March 12, 2018 - 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.

Military personnel wearing protective suits investigate the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, remain critically ill.​

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. 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."

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

See also:

U.K. Prime Minister Says 'Highly Likely' Russia Responsible For Ex-Spy Poisoning
March 12, 2018 • "It is now clear that Mr. Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia," May told lawmakers in a statement on Monday.

British Prime Minister Theresa May says it is "highly likely" that Russia is behind the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter earlier this month in southern England. Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found collapsed on a bench on March 4 in the city of Salisbury. They remain in critical condition, according to The Associated Press. "It is now clear that Mr. Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia," May told lawmakers in a statement on Monday. She said the agent has been identified as one of a group of nerve agents called Novichok, which Russia has previously produced.

She added that there are just two explanations for the apparent poisoning — either Russia directly carried out the attack or it lost control of its supply of the deadly nerve agent. The Russian ambassador has been summoned to explain how this happened, May added, and has been asked to give a formal response by Tuesday. And if that response is not credible, May said, "we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom. And I will come back to this house and set out the full range of measures that we will take in response."

This case has drawn parallels with a Russia-linked death of a defected Russian intelligence officer in 2006, as NPR's Scott Neuman reported. Here's more: "Skripal had retired from Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service, a successor to the KGB, when he was arrested and convicted in 2006 of working undercover for Britain's MI6. In 2010 he arrived in the U.K. as part of a prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington." When the BBC asked Russian President Vladimir Putin whether Russia was responsible, he replied: "Get to the bottom of things there, then we'll discuss this." "Having established that a nerve agent is the cause of the symptoms leading us to treat this as attempted murder, I can also confirm that we believe that the two people who became unwell were targeted specifically," Metropolitan Police counterterrorism chief Mark Rowley said at a news conference last week, Scott added.

Nerve agents are "designed only to kill," Leeds University toxicologist Alastair Hay told NPR. The weapons "work by blocking the message from the nerves to the muscles," which could affect the muscles used to breathe, potentially causing asphyxiation. "Trace contamination" was found at two Salisbury establishments — The Mill Pub and Zizzi Restaurant — England's chief medical officer announced Sunday, as NPR's Amy Held reported. People in those establishments on March 4 or 5 were encouraged to clean the clothes they were wearing or wipe down belongings. At the same time, officials stated that there is "no immediate health risk." A policeman who was responding to the incident, Det. Sgt. Nick Bailey, remains in "serious but stable condition," May said Monday.

U.K. Prime Minister Says 'Highly Likely' Russia Responsible For Ex-Spy Poisoning

 

[Billy_Bob]

Russians poison ex-spy on British soil...

Nerve Agent Found In U.K. Is Rare And Definitely Russian
March 12, 2018 - 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.

Military personnel wearing protective suits investigate the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, remain critically ill.​

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. 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."

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

See also:

U.K. Prime Minister Says 'Highly Likely' Russia Responsible For Ex-Spy Poisoning
March 12, 2018 • "It is now clear that Mr. Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia," May told lawmakers in a statement on Monday.

British Prime Minister Theresa May says it is "highly likely" that Russia is behind the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter earlier this month in southern England. Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found collapsed on a bench on March 4 in the city of Salisbury. They remain in critical condition, according to The Associated Press. "It is now clear that Mr. Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia," May told lawmakers in a statement on Monday. She said the agent has been identified as one of a group of nerve agents called Novichok, which Russia has previously produced.

She added that there are just two explanations for the apparent poisoning — either Russia directly carried out the attack or it lost control of its supply of the deadly nerve agent. The Russian ambassador has been summoned to explain how this happened, May added, and has been asked to give a formal response by Tuesday. And if that response is not credible, May said, "we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom. And I will come back to this house and set out the full range of measures that we will take in response."

This case has drawn parallels with a Russia-linked death of a defected Russian intelligence officer in 2006, as NPR's Scott Neuman reported. Here's more: "Skripal had retired from Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service, a successor to the KGB, when he was arrested and convicted in 2006 of working undercover for Britain's MI6. In 2010 he arrived in the U.K. as part of a prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington." When the BBC asked Russian President Vladimir Putin whether Russia was responsible, he replied: "Get to the bottom of things there, then we'll discuss this." "Having established that a nerve agent is the cause of the symptoms leading us to treat this as attempted murder, I can also confirm that we believe that the two people who became unwell were targeted specifically," Metropolitan Police counterterrorism chief Mark Rowley said at a news conference last week, Scott added.

Nerve agents are "designed only to kill," Leeds University toxicologist Alastair Hay told NPR. The weapons "work by blocking the message from the nerves to the muscles," which could affect the muscles used to breathe, potentially causing asphyxiation. "Trace contamination" was found at two Salisbury establishments — The Mill Pub and Zizzi Restaurant — England's chief medical officer announced Sunday, as NPR's Amy Held reported. People in those establishments on March 4 or 5 were encouraged to clean the clothes they were wearing or wipe down belongings. At the same time, officials stated that there is "no immediate health risk." A policeman who was responding to the incident, Det. Sgt. Nick Bailey, remains in "serious but stable condition," May said Monday.

U.K. Prime Minister Says 'Highly Likely' Russia Responsible For Ex-Spy Poisoning

Manufacturing techniques leaves trace evidence at the molecular level. SO this is probably all but solid in concrete.

I want to see the disperser device. Its manufacture will have other clues as well.

 

[Billy_Bob]

You all want to know what VX can do? Here is some lite reading..

Dugway sheep incident - Wikipedia

 

[Billy_Bob]

For those who do not know what VX is:

"VX is an extremely toxic synthetic chemical compound in the organophosphorus class, specifically, a thiophosphonate. In the class of nerve agents, it was developed for military use in chemical warfare after translation of earlier discoveries of organophosphatetoxicity in pesticide research."

"The danger of VX, in particular, lies in direct exposure to the chemical agent persisting where it was dispersed, and not through its evaporating and being distributed as a vapor (i.e., it is not a "vapor hazard"). VX is considered an area denial weapon due to these physical and biochemical characteristics.[7] As a chemical weapon, it is categorized as a weapon of mass destruction and is banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993,[8] where production and stockpiling of VX exceeding 100 grams (3.53 oz) per year is outlawed. "

Source


As this is an internationally banned item, the use of it on foreign soil is an act of war. Now that May has accused Russia of its use things could get real dicey...

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

Russia tries to kill rogue spies.....

Yawn.....


Anyone with a brain would know this is nothing new and would stop pretending Russians are anything but bad.

 

[Billy_Bob]

Russia tries to kill rogue spies.....

Yawn.....


Anyone with a brain would know this is nothing new and would stop pretending Russians are anything but bad.

Its the collateral damage that concerns me... Organophosphates degrade in water and is why the death toll was real low ----- this time.

 

[MarathonMike]

VX is the nerve agent that was used to kill Kim Jung's half brother. The only reason the ex Soviet spy is alive is because it was raining. It is quickly neutralized with water. The two assassins who killed the half brother each had one component of the binary nerve agent on their hands and they wiped his face with it. When the second girl wiped her component on his face (in a busy airport), he was a dead man walking. Both girls washed the stuff off in the bathroom quickly and suffered no effects. It is quite possible the Russians got it from North Korea who unabashedly produce chemical weapons for their own use and their trading partners.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

VX is the nerve agent that was used to kill Kim Jung's half brother. The only reason the ex Soviet spy is alive is because it was raining. It is quickly neutralized with water. The two assassins who killed the half brother each had one component of the binary nerve agent on their hands and they wiped his face with it. When the second girl wiped her component on his face (in a busy airport), he was a dead man walking. Both girls washed the stuff off in the bathroom quickly and suffered no effects. It is quite possible the Russians got it from North Korea who unabashedly produce chemical weapons for their own use and their trading partners.

I'm pretty sure that Russia has plenty of their own VX gas, and don't need to get it from NK.

 

[Billy_Bob]

VX is the nerve agent that was used to kill Kim Jung's half brother. The only reason the ex Soviet spy is alive is because it was raining. It is quickly neutralized with water. The two assassins who killed the half brother each had one component of the binary nerve agent on their hands and they wiped his face with it. When the second girl wiped her component on his face (in a busy airport), he was a dead man walking. Both girls washed the stuff off in the bathroom quickly and suffered no effects. It is quite possible the Russians got it from North Korea who unabashedly produce chemical weapons for their own use and their trading partners.

I'm pretty sure that Russia has plenty of their own VX gas, and don't need to get it from NK.

The binary form of the agent was first created by Russia's KGB.. NK was a proud recipient of that kind of thing..

 

[Syriusly]

This should scare the crap out of anyone who knows and has handled these things. Someone used military grade toxins (VX) in an effort to kill an ex soviet double agent in England. 24 people were contaminated and affected. The man and his daughter are in critical but stable condition but are unconscious. The officer who attempted to help them is in stable but good condition and is talking.

If they can get this into The UK imagine what they could bring here..

Theresa May today branded an attempt to kill a Russian double agent with a nerve agent an 'appalling and reckless crime'.

The Prime Minister said she would do 'what is right' if it was proven the Kremlin was responsible for the attempt on Sergei Skripal's life.

Mrs May hinted at support for expelling the Russian ambassador if the case was proven.

The cold war is back.... WITH A VENGEANCE...


May condemns attempt to kill a Russian spy with a nerve agent | Daily Mail Online

As May noted- this means either that Russia attacked persons in the UK- or they lost control of their own chemical weapons- since no one but Russia had them.

But the contards will continue to sing praises of Putin.

 

[waltky]

Novichok has scared American weapons experts...

The Nerve Agent Too Deadly to Use. Until Someone Did.
MARCH 13, 2018 — For nearly three decades, since a Soviet whistle-blower told the world of its existence, the nerve agent Novichok has scared American weapons experts. The Pentagon sent teams to destroy abandoned laboratories that once produced the chemical, believed to be orders of magnitude more lethal than sarin or VX.

There was no sign of it ever being used. Until last week. Now, Britons are taking in the disquieting information that a Novichok nerve agent, a weapon invented for use against NATO troops, was released in the quiet town of Salisbury, its target a former Russian spy named Sergei V. Skripal. Mr. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, collapsed onto a bench in a catatonic state on March 4, and remain hospitalized, in critical condition. Britain’s Home Ministry on Tuesday indicated that it viewed state-sponsored violence by Moscow as a larger problem, announcing that it would scrutinize a series of suspicious deaths of Russians on British soil. Home Minister Amber Rudd said the police and MI5, Britain’s domestic security agency, would review 14 cases cataloged last year in an investigation by BuzzFeed. The British police also announced an investigation into the death on Monday of Nikolai Glushkov, a close associate of one of Mr. Putin’s most prominent foes. In interviews, chemical weapons experts said it was possible that Novichok nerve agents had been used before on Kremlin targets in Britain, but had escaped detection.

Exposure, either by inhalation or through the skin, leads to muscle spasms, secretion of fluid into the lungs and organ failure, sometimes accompanied by foaming at the mouth. But if the victim has already died, experts said, the police could easily mistake the cause of death for a simple heart attack. “It’s entirely likely that we have seen someone expire from this and not realized it,” said Daniel M. Gerstein, a former senior official at the United States Department of Homeland Security who is now at the RAND Corporation. “We realized in this case because they were found unresponsive on a park bench. Had it been a higher dose, maybe they would have died and we would have thought it was natural causes.” The Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said on Tuesday that his country had nothing to do with Mr. Skripal’s poisoning, dismissing Britain’s allegation that Moscow was to blame as “nonsense.” Britain had sought an explanation from Russia by the end of the day on Tuesday on how the nerve agent could have been used. But Mr. Lavrov said that Moscow “had received an incoherent response” when it asked London for details, which he said amounted to a “rejection of our legitimate demands.”

The dispute between the two countries has sharply worsened tensions between Russia and the West, already strained by Moscow’s role in the Syrian conflict and its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Though American laboratories stopped producing nerve agents around 1970, after the production of so-called third-generation nerve agents like sarin and VX, Soviet scientists continued their work for two decades, producing a “fourth generation.” The Novichok nerve agents came in solid form, like a powder or thick paste, and would not register on the chemical detector paper that NATO troops used. A chemist who worked in the laboratory developing Novichok accidentally inhaled fumes while filling a syringe, and collapsed. Though he was injected with an antidote and eventually awoke, he suffered from depression and epilepsy and died five years later, leaving Vil Mirzayanov, a scientist who helped develop the agent, deeply disillusioned. “Antidotes exist, but what does antidote mean?” Mr. Mirzayanov, who had leaked the project to the press and later immigrated to the United States, told Sky News on Tuesday. “You’re saving a person who has been exposed to this gas — but temporarily, not to die this time. But he will be an invalid for the rest of his life.”

Andrew C. Weber, a former assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, recalls picking his way through a secret, abandoned Soviet research facility in Nukus, Uzbekistan, which the United States was asked to helped destroy in the early 2000s. Entering a basement room, Mr. Weber saw a disturbing sight: “dozens and dozens of restraining devices” used to immobilize dogs while their skin was exposed to Novichok agents in the form of a powder or paste. He said that he believed each test involved 50 to 100 dogs, and that at least 1,000 dogs had been killed at the facility. The Pentagon, Mr. Weber said, “devoted a lot of resources to improving our protection, detection and countermeasures against it.” But it did not anticipate its use in an assassination, he said, in part because it was so easily traced to Russia. “It’s obviously tightly controlled by the Russian government,” he said. “It’s implausible to me — possible, but not probable — that this chemical weapon would have been diverted from a Russian facility. It would be well guarded.”

MORE

 

[badger2]

No, it was tested at Shikhani and Nukus. Did you think they used dogs or monkeys?

 

[badger2]

The Pentagon sent teams, and Mirzayanov was at Rutgers. Duh.