Foreign Affairs
Related: About this forumAhead of inspection, Russia destroys lab where Novichok nerve agent was supposedly made.
Sergej Skripal, an ex-agent who betrayed Russia, was assassinated in the UK with a nerve-agent of the Novichok-family. He's still in a coma. Novichok was invented in the Soviet Union. The analysis by the OPCW (a chemical weapons watchdog) showed two things:
* it indeed was Novichok
* the chemical purity was so high that it must originate from a professional laboratory
Britain has accused Russia of the assassination. Britain has claimed to have intelligence that Russia is still producing Novichok in an old chemical weapons lab in the russian town Shikhany.
The OPCW was scheduled to inspect that lab.
Just ahead of the inspection, Russia has leveled the lab, citing its age. The rubble is being burned in a furnace to decontaminate it.
https://inews.co.uk/news/russian-base-where-novichock-was-made-has-been-demolished-before-inspectors-arrive/
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/952785/russia-news-novichok-centre-demolished-salisbury-spy-poison
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201804271063955922-shikhany-novichok-chemicals-trademark/
Move along!
Nothing to see here!
It's perfectly normal to wipe out a suspicious laboratory before chemical weapons inspectors can take a look at it!