# The Russians, Says Chemist Who Uncovered Existence Of Novichok

Russian chemist who first revealed the existence of Novichok nerve agents says only the Russians can be behind the weapon's use in Britain against a former spy and his daughter.

Vil Mirzayanov, 83, came to the United States in 1995 after 30 years of working for the State Scientific Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology, or GNIIOKhT.

It was he who in the early 1990s revealed the existence of that class of ultra-powerful nerve agents.

He did so first in the Russian media as it opened up with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and later, with chemical formulas at hand, in his book  State Secrets  published in 2007. Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found slumped on a bench in the English city of Salisbury on March 4. Britain says it is "highly likely" that Moscow was to blame for the nerve agent attack.

Mirzayanov, speaking at his home in Princeton, New Jersey, said he is convinced Russia carried it out as a way of intimidating opponents of President Vladimir Putin.


The only other possibility, he said, would be that someone used the formulas in his book to make such a weapon.