Russia plays innocent after russian nerve-gas used for murder in UK.

[DetlefK]

Warning. RT is not a trustworthy news-outlet because they regularly lie by omission. Handle with care.

https://www.rt.com/news/421081-russia-reaction-skripal-may/
https://www.rt.com/uk/421102-may-russia-blame-attack-skripal/

Russian double-agent Skripal was almost killed on UK-soil with the russian nerve-gas Novichok.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novichok_agent
The british government has two theories: Either Russia killed him or russian military-grade nerve-gas got into the wrong hands. The british government demands that the russian ambassador give a credible explanation by Tuesday evening.

Russia's response?
- "Let's talk about something else!"
- "Theresa May is accusing Russia because she's playing politics."
- "Russian assassins would never be so stupid to use russian nerve-gas."
- "The investigation by british authorities is biased and not trustworthy."
- "It's a plot to manipulate Russia's election."




Former Pentagon official Michael Maloof echoed the point, saying that the “outright accusatory statements” made mid-way though the investigation are “part of the anti-Russia hype that continues in the West.” Bringing up how the UK government sided with the US in the false claim that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, he said it's hard to take any such assertions at face value.

“We need to see the evidence. And the people of both Russia and the United States, and the world, are savvy enough to see the evidence and be able to make their own judgement. We haven’t seen that evidence,” Maloof said.


Please note how he DIDN'T say that Great Britain gets to make decisions based on evidence. No, it's the russian people who get to decide whether Britain's accusations against Russia are credible.

[FarCenter]

1. It was actually developed by the USSR

One of the main laboratories was in Uzbekistan.

After the collapse of the USSR, there were a lot of unemployed chemical weapons experts around.

[DetlefK]

2. Have you looked at the chemical formula?

Phosphorus and Fluorine and Chlorine? You don't cook a molecule like that in your kitchen. For that you need a state-of-the-art laboratory and some crazy-ass precursors you cannot buy over-the-counter.

Whoever made that sample of Novichok, whether it was the russian government or a rogue scientist or somebody else, they had massive material support, money and time.

[FarCenter]

3. Novichok agents were developed to be producible in insecticide and pesticide factories

The design objective was to be able to produce each of the two binary components in commercial labs that would not be under the controls of the chemical warfare conventions.

In case of conflict, you want to be able to convert commercial plants to mass production of the components without requiring extensive specialized plants.

Halogenated organophosphates are used in flame retardants applied to clothing, bedding and upholstery.