The remarks by Vladimir Uglev, a Soviet chemical weapons scientist, contradict official Russian denials that the country had any chemical weapons programme tied to the name novichok, with the formal codename foliant. According to Mirzayanov, they are 10 to 100 times more toxic than the conventional nerve agents. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images EuropeBut nerve agents typically deteriorate quickly. He said he handled foliant nerve agents for the last time in 1990. They were not on the list of chemical weapons submitted by Russia as part of the Chemical Weapons Convention signed in 1993.

Source: The Guardian March 23, 2018 18:33 UTC