UK lab says it cannot tell if nerve agent used to poison ex-spy Sergei Skripal was Russian-made
UK lab chief Gary Aitkenhead said analysts had identified the nerve agent as military-grade Novichok, but they ‘have not identified the precise source’
The British military facility analysing the nerve agent used to poison former spy Sergei Skripal said on Tuesday that it could not prove the substance was made in Russia.
Gary Aitkenhead, chief executive of the Porton Down defence laboratory, told Britain’s Sky News that analysts had identified the substance as military-grade Novichok, the word used for a category of nerve agents developed in Soviet times.
But he added, “We have not identified the precise source”.
“It is our job to provide the scientific evidence of what this particular nerve agent is. We identified that it is from this particular family and that it is a military grade, but it is not our job to say where it was manufactured,” Aitkenhead said.
He added that “extremely sophisticated methods” were needed to create the nerve agent, and that was “something only in the capabilities of a state actor”.