A new poisoning in Britain is commented on by one of the creators of nerve agent A-234 and a specialist from the British center for protection from biological, chemical and nuclear hazards: both admit that the victims had contact with the remnants of the "Novice" used to attack in March. British intelligence agencies are on guard: what will Russia arrange after the World Cup? A relative of the Violins from Yaroslavl on a scandalous wave aspires to politics.
Dieter Rothbacher of CBRN, the UK's training center for protection from biological, chemical and nuclear hazards, commented in an interview with Der Standard on the incident of poisoning a couple from Amesbury with the nerve agent "Novice".
"It is possible that the victims had contact with the remnants of the substance used in March (to attack the Fiddler), but it can not be ruled out that the chemical agent was reapplied," Rothbacher said..
"Beginner" refers to a class of persistent toxic agents, "explained Rothbacher. - You can compare it with oil droplets, more resistant than water ". "There will be enough micrograms for poisoning," the expert pointed out, answering the question about the effectiveness of measures taken after the poisoning of the Violins for the disinfection of the area.
"Until recently, the Novice poison agent was known only to insiders - there were not even any samples from the OPCW Analytical Center specialists until one of the Iranian laboratories provided them," Rothbacher said.. "If you have the necessary information and equipment, a chemist can easily reproduce a small amount of this substance," he says.. - In other words, there is no evidence that only Russia can produce "Novice".
The expert found it difficult to answer whether any laboratory "Novice" is currently producing.
Vladimir Uglev, 15 years working on the creation of "The Beginner", said that the substance is likely to remain in Salisbury for years to come, the correspondent of The Independent, Oliver Carroll. It's almost impossible to detect, he said..
"The substance can be absorbed into any soft surface, be it trees, leather or benches in the park," said Uglev. - From there it can be absorbed into the skin of a person with all the ensuing consequences ".
Uglev agrees with the findings of British intelligence that during the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal used "Novice". According to him, we can safely assume that "Novice" is the cause of the last incident. "I'm 99% sure that it was A-234. I know him as a mother knows her child, "- said the Carbs.
The neural-paralytic substance A-234 from the Novikov family is particularly stable, but its stability depends on climatic factors. "According to Uglev, the substance evaporates rapidly under direct sunlight or on a flat metal surface,. - It can persist for a long time in colder and drier conditions, having absorbed into uneven soft surfaces ".
The scientist allowed the possibility that the second case of poisoning is associated with an unused portion of the poison: "This may be secondary poisoning by the first batch, or for the killer prepared several syringes and they were hidden somewhere in the district".
He dismissed the version that it could have been single or non-state terrorists. According to him, even he could not reproduce this substance outside the specialized laboratory. "It was an attack on the state level," - said Uglev The Independent.
British intelligence agencies are preparing for the fact that Russia will undertake a new attack after the end of the World Cup, reports The Times. They are wary of another attempt at assassination or cyberattacks on an extremely necessary infrastructure element, such as a power plant or a water supply system.
A source in Whitehall commented: "Alertness because of the likelihood of an attack by hostile states, including Russia, certainly exists. In this we are always very keenly aware of the ".
A senior military official said that the Kremlin tends to attack when the world's attention is distracted by an international sporting event. "There is a pattern in Russia's behavior - it invaded Georgia and the Crimea during international sports events," he recalled..
The authors of the article note: "Putin seeks to present his country in a positive light during the football tournament. But these ambitions were struck because of, apparently, the accidental poisoning by Russian nerve agent of two British on Saturday in Amesbury ".
The Independent's correspondent, Oliver Carroll, took an exclusive interview with Victoria Skripal, a relative of Sergei and Julia, who lives in Yaroslavl.
"Half of the city calls me a British bitch," says Victoria. She could hardly choose the worst week for the start of the election campaign in her native city, the correspondent writes. "But a woman with a famous name is not going to let events - or the opinions of other people - get in her way," he notes..
The 45-year-old Skripal, an accountant by profession, is simply indefatigable. "We are moving in a family Chevrolet to the center of Yaroslavl, then to a two-room apartment where she lives with 90-year-old Granny Skripal, her husband and two children," the correspondent says..
According to her, Victoria does not understand why in the recent incident with the poisoning of a British couple in Amesbury blame the Kremlin. There are more obvious explanations, she says, for example the proximity of Porton Down, the secret military research facility.
The violinist admits that Julia, who spent most of her childhood in Europe, is cold with her. When Julia returned to Russia, she "looked down on" a "plump, rustic cousin of the province".
Carroll adds that they also have "serious political differences".
Victoria claims that the British manipulated her relatives by carefully fabricating their public statements.
She herself had many versions of what actually happened in March in Salisbury. The most "convincing" she believes is this: her uncle became a victim of a global political game involving Donald Trump, Teresa May and Russia.
Victoria Skripal "can imagine" that a man like Andrei Lugovoy could go to London to kill his former colleague, but does not see such logic in the case of her uncle, who, she said, did not "trade secrets" in difference from Alexander Litvinenko.
According to Skripal, she is not embarrassed by the comparison with Lugovoi, who also became a deputy in the midst of the scandal surrounding the Litvinenko case - she had been thinking about a political career for many years. Now she is running for the deputies of the Yaroslavl parliament from the party "Fair Russia", says Carroll. She is going to focus on "creating new schools and a children's medical center".
"It seems that only I have no idea who poisoned the four in Wiltshire," wrote The Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins. - They say that only Russians have this poison, known as "Novice" - although the British research station Porton Down, which is ominously close to the scene, obviously knows a lot about it. I repeat, I do not have any data. I think you can understand why the Kremlin could want to kill a former spy, like Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, so that the rest of them could not run across the enemy's side. But why wait so long after he fled? And why do everything in preparation for such a politicized event, like the World Cup in Russia? ".
Minister of Internal Affairs Sajid Javid said that it is time "for the Russian state to take a step forward and explain what is happening". His security minister, Ben Wallace, had previously come to the same conclusion, based on the fact that the Russians had "developed the Novice", used the programs of hired killers in the past, had a motive, form and declared policy, "Jenkins.
"Clearly, three months after the attempt at the Skrypals, the ministers could have obtained any evidence in favor of all these accusations?" - the author writes.
"Obviously, freelancers, feral agents or private assassins could operate far from the Kremlin. But who knows? (. ) It may be, rather, one of his enemies, than one of his friends or subordinates, "- reads the article.
"If the evidence in favor of the fact that Moscow is to blame for poisoning, it will not appear, politicians are fools. If there really was a Russian conspiracy, it would be justifiable to get angry when it is proved. Until then, I recommend tennis, "jokes Jenkins.
Source: InoPressa.