RUSSIAN POISONINGS: SERGEI SKRIPAL (PART 3)

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In Part 2 of the series, we had a look at the family moving to England and finished with Sergei and Yulia lying on a park bench, foaming at the mouth and comatose. They have been exposed to the deadly nerve agent, Novichok. In this post, we will take an in-depth look at Novichok and also at the two perpetrators of this crime, and the events that transpired. 

NOVICHOK AGENTS 

Novichok agents are a group of deadly nerve agents that have been developed in the Soviet Union, under their poisons program. ( We covered this in THIS post.) They were developed under a programme with the codename FOLIANT. 

Examples of structures of Novichok agents 

The Novichok agents first came to media awareness when a Russian chemist, Dr Vil Mirzayanov reported on their existence to Russia media in the 1990s. He wrote about it in his book, State Secrets, and even published the chemical formula. He moved to the USA around the same time, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the so called ''brain drain'' period. This was the period when Russian top scientists were leaving to USA in droves, exchanging knowledge for a Green Card. Mirzayanov used his knowledge of chemical warfare to be able to stay in the USA. 

In 1999, US Defence officials trekked to Uzbekistan to help dismantle and clear away one of the largest former Soviet chemical testing facilities. And according to Russian officials, that operation and others similar to it, cleared away all the undisclosed chemical weapons that Russia had. 

Some variants of the Novichok agents are said to be five to eight times more toxic than sarin or VX, and also harder to identify. These agents are pretty hardy and ''stable''. They can last quite long, for up to 50 years, if kept in a well-preserved container. They don't evaporate and don't break in water. Although in saying that, Novichok is also one of the less studied nerve agents, so there is a debate on exactly how long it will last because there is no scientific data to date. 

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) added these substances to the Chemical Weapons Convention's list of control substances on 27 November 2019. This was the first major change to the treaty since the 1990s. 

There are various forms of this agent, it can be solid or liquid. The solid ones can be a fine powder. Some of the agents are also what is called ''binary weapons'', meaning that the ingredients can be stored separately as two less toxic chemical substances, and then mixed together to form Novichok. 

It can be administered through inhalation, ingestion or absorbed through the skin. So that means that Novichok agents can be sprayed in someone's face or spread as a mist in the air, it can be put in food or water or it can be spread on various objects like door handles, phones, etc. to be absorbed in the skin when contact is made. 

There are some antidotes, atropine and athene, but these are not a cure. They just help to slow down, and stop, the reaction to the nerve agents. Other things that help would be to remove the clothing and try to wash the nerve agent particles away from the skin and administer oxygen to the person. 

Symptoms of Novichok poisoning are similar to other nerve agents: excessive constriction of pupils, convulsions, vomiting, shortness of breath, profuse sweating. 

Dr Mirzayanov believes that Russia can be the only one responsible for the Skripal poisoning because it's the country of origin for Novichok agents, and they have the experience and capability to use and  make this into a weapon. 

TIMELINE OF EVENTS 

On Friday, 2 March 2018, two men arrive at Gatwick Airport, in London, at 3.00pm with flight Aeroflot SU2588 from Moscow. These two were Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. They declared that they work in sport nutrition and are in England for a holiday. 

Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov 

They move towards their hotel, City Stay Hotel, in Bow, in east London to check in and spend the first night of their ''holiday''. Trace amounts of Novichok, below the levels that would be deemed harmful, were found in their room. 

The hotel where the suspects were staying and trace amounts of Novichok was detected 

The next day, Saturday, 3rd March, Boshirov and Petrov go to Waterloo Station and board a train to Salisbury. Police believe that this trip was a reconnaissance mission. They left just before 2.30pm from London and came back at 4.11pm.

On Sunday, 4th of March, day of the poisoning, the two suspects are again seen to leave London by Waterloo Station to Salisbury. They leave just after 8.00am by taking the metro from Bow and moving on with the train to their destination. At 11.48am, they arrive at Salisbury train station, which is located about 1.6kms away from the Skripal home. Ten minutes later, at 11.58am, they are seen on CCTV footage at a Shell gas station that is not too far from Skripals residence, located at Christie Miller Road. 

A few hours later, just after 1.00pm, Boshirov and Petrov are seen on Fisherton Road, making their way to the train station. At this point, the Novichok agent has been distributed on the victim's home and deed was done. They arrive back to London at 4.45pm. 

The two suspects caught on camera at Salisbury train station on 4 March 2018

While they were on the train, at 4.15pm, Sergei and his daughter are found on the park bench after they were dining at the Zizzi's restaurant. 

At 6.30pm that evening, the two men leave on the metro to Heathrow Airport. At 7.28pm, they are seen going through passport control, and at 10.30pm they are on Aeroflot flight SU2585 back to Moscow.

Suspects caught on CCTV camera going
through security at Heathrow Airport. 

''WE WERE JUST VISITING THE CATHEDRAL..''

When asked what they were doing in Salisbury, during one interview, both men said that they were in Salisbury to visit the famous Salisbury Cathedral. Even though they were spotted 3kms away from the church and closer to the Skripal's home. 

Investigative journalists at Bellingcat found that these two men are in fact GRU agents that came to England under false names. They were able to find that Ruslan Boshirov was actually Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga. He is a highly decorated GRU officer that was awarded the nation's highest award, Hero of the Russian Federation. Petrov is also an alias, but his real name has not been found yet. 

Theresa May, British Prime Minister 2016 to 2019

Theresa May, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in her statement to the British Parliament on 5 September 2018 said:

"...Based on this work, I can today tell the House that, based on a body of intelligence, the Government has concluded that the two individuals named by the police and CPS are officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU.

The GRU is a highly disciplined organisation with a well-established chain of command.

So this was not a rogue operation. It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state."

So from this we can definitely say that we know who is responsible for the crime and the reason we established in Part 1, Skripal was seen as a traitor. In the final part of these series, Part 4, we will have a look at the two unfortunate victims of this assassination attempt, Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess, who lost her life to Novichok poisoning. 

References: 

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