MOSCOW — During the Cold War, Soviet scientists at a secret, high-security lab worked frantically to counter the latest U.S. chemical weapons. More than 40 years later, the nerve agent they developed apparently turned up in a quiet English town, where it nearly killed a former Russian spy and his daughter. Both scientists agreed, however, that it might never be possible to determine the nerve agent’s source. The Soviets wanted the equivalent of U.S. binary weapons — nerve agents made up of relatively harmless components that turned deadly when mixed. Gen. Anatoly Kuntsevich, who directed the Novichok program, went to Syria, where he reportedly helped create a chemical weapons program in the 1990s.

Source: National Post April 23, 2018 12:29 UTC