Developer of Novichok agent: Brits could have poisoned Skripal

The fact that the former colonel of the Russian GRU secret service Sergei Skripal is alive proves Russia’s noninvolvement in the poisoning, because “even an unprofessional Russian agent would not use the one substance of Russian origin and with a Russian name,” one of the developers of the Novichok agent, Leonid Rink ahs said in an interview to RIA Novosti.

According to Rink, Russia has no motive to poison Skripal, as the latter ratted out his British contacts to Russians and everything he knew in the USSR he ratted out to the UK. Skripal posed no interest to Moscow, and the timing was very bad for Russia, the expert said, as it was before the presidential election and not long before the FIFA World Cup in Russia.

Rink believes it won’t be difficult to find out what certain agent was used to poison Skripal. "It is absolutely certain that there are such specialists in the UK. I believe they could have applied the substance on Skripal or his daughter's belongings. Or on some objects in the cemetery. Naturally, there should have known that Skripal would visit the cemetery. It could have easily been done by the British themselves," he is quoted as saying by Sputnik International. 

"Why do you think the British refuse to give a [nerve agent] sample to Moscow? Because no matter how hard the specialists try, the manufacturing technology always differs a little. It's a kind of a 'handwriting sample.' It will immediately become clear that this is not a Russian technology," the expert added.

As EADaily reported earlier, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious in a park in Salisbury. The Scotland Yard has started looking for witnesses of the incident. The investigators are especially interested in their route in the morning of the attack. The investigation is expected to take several weeks or even months.

As Russian President Vladimir Putin announced earlier, Russia destroyed all of its chemical weapons under the international observers’ supervision and is ready to cooperate, participate in the investigation of a former colonel of Russia's GRU secret service Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia poisoning in the UK.