Article

2018-11-24 Britain

UK Releases New Clips of Russian Nerve Agent Attack Suspects

[An Nahar] British police have released CCTV footage of two suspected Russian intelligence agents walking toward Sergei Skripal's home on the day of the former spy's poisoning with a nerve agent.

The clips show the Russians -- known by the aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov -- appearing to take photographs on their arrival in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found slumped unconscious on a park bench that same afternoon.

British police believe they were poisoned by a Soviet-era nerve agent called Novichok designed by Moscow specifically to conduct liquidations abroad.

Russia denies that the two men are members of its GRU military intelligence service. It also says the Novichok could have come from a nearby British or some other laboratory.

Nick Bailey, a British police officer who searched Skripal's home after the father and daughter were found, was also exposed to the nerve agent and spent weeks in hospital.

In an interview with the BBC Panorama program on Thursday, Bailey said he knew something was wrong when his "pupils were like pin pricks" and he became "quite sweaty and hot."

"Knowing how the other two (the Skripals) were or how badly they'd been affected by it, I was petrified," said Bailey.

He said the substance could have killed "thousands" of people.

Kremlin front man Dmitry Peskov on Friday repeated Russia's denials and said Britannia had refused Moscow's offer to assist in the investigation.

Posted by Fred 2018-11-24 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11126 views ] Top

#1 a Soviet-era nerve agent called Novichok designed by Moscow specifically to conduct assassinations abroad.

Really? That's the story we're shopping now?
According to the often entertaining and sometimes reliable Wikipedia article on Novichok:
These agents were designed to achieve four objectives:
* to be undetectable using standard 1970s and 1980s NATO chemical detection equipment;
* to defeat NATO chemical protective gear;
* to be safer to handle;
* to circumvent the Chemical Weapons Convention list of controlled precursors, classes of chemical and physical form

Likely the last item was of great importance. If you are trying to do something illegal, it helps if no one realizes you are doing it. Ordering industrial quantities of embargoed chemicals is a big giveaway.

(afflicted cop) said the substance could have killed "thousands" of people.
Yep, that is definitely one of my requirements for a covert assassination tool. Poking a person with a poisoned umbrella is simply passé.

This story has been hinky from the beginning and the 'facts' that get released only make my spider sense ever more tingly. Maybe I should rub some atropine on it.

/disclaimer: never actually done any covert assassination
(btw, what's the statute of limitations on that? asking for a friend)

Posted by SteveS 2018-11-24 13:37|| 2018-11-24 13:37|| Front Page Top

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