The scientist who leaked Russia's Novichok 'conspiracy'
Now 83 and living in the United States, Mirzayanov described the sophisticated substances used to make the Novichok agents which had been developed under a classified programme codenamed Foliant, or folio.
Novichok agents are binary chemical weapons, he said, which means that their potency only manifests itself after chemical synthesis of relatively harmless components.
Since the same chemical elements in Novichok are used to make pesticides, facilities producing these substances can easily be disguised as civilian factories, he wrote.
Mirzayanov said he had witnessed several scientists failing to regain their health after exposure to a Novichok-type agent.
"The damage it inflicts is practically incurable," he said in the article.
Asked this week about the March 4 poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, he was quoted as saying: "These people are gone -- the man and his daughter. Even if they survive they will not recover."
http://www.france24.com/en/20180313-scientist-who-leaked-russias-novichok-conspiracy
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