What is the Novichok nerve agent?

same short nerve gas but ten times at least ten times more powerful so the Novacek agents are a group of agents we call them fourth generation chemical weapons and they were developed by the Soviet Union in the 1980s sarin and VX are third generation chemical agents this is a more advanced fourth generation agent and it's more lethal it's about at least five times more deadly than VX which is one of the most deadly chemical agents [Music] it can be a fine powder or liquid so because it it didn't knock them on their feet immediately it seems that it was some type of contact with their skin that probably was the method of transmission one other fact about the Novacek agents is that they're not prohibited specifically on a list by the Chemical Weapons Convention in fact they were developed by the Soviet military to evade our defenses or protective suits our antidotes and also - as a way to be able to produce them without being covered by the Chemical Weapons Convention really two scenarios one is that this was a Russian government operation to kill this you know former spy that they consider a traitor even though he's in the UK so that's one possibility the second possibility is that it was in a Russian laboratory and somehow they lost control of it there is concern that some of the chemical formulas have become publicly known so it's possible that other countries would have ventured into the these this class of chemical weapons agents

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Length: 3min 26sec (206 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 13 2018