Reddit reviews State Secrets: An Insider's Chronicle of the Russian Chemical Weapons Program

That's...completely wrong. The novochik line of chemical weapons was only developed in an isolated military installation in the Russian Federation territory of the Soviet Union. We know this thanks to defectors from the actual program involved.

Yeah, you can buy his book on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/State-Secrets-Insiders-Chronicle-Chemical/dp/1432725661

Contains the formula.

b/c they did not follow OPCW guidelines(which required delivering a sample of the, which both the UK and Russia are signatories of). Second, Novichok does not imply Russian origin, since the formula is actually in public domain. You can literally buy the book here. Anybody could've made it. Lastly, what reason would Russia have to kill their former spies. They came to the UK through a spy exchange program, if they wanted them dead, they would've done it years ago.

I don’t think it was that tightly guarded https://www.amazon.com/State-Secrets-Insiders-Chronicle-Chemical/dp/1432725661

But noone stops to ask: If Russia wanted to get away with a highly political murder, why the fuck would they use a nerve-agent solely used by Russia? They might aswell drop a calling-card on the corpse.

Either it wasn't Russians, or they wanted to get caught.

So why the hell would they want to get caught?

Further still, the nerve-agent isn't even solely available to Russians: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/what-novichok-nerve-agent-center-russian-ex-spy-poisoning-n856001

>"The Novichok agents are thought to be far more difficult to detect during manufacturing and far easier to manufacture covertly, because they can be made with common chemicals in relatively simple pesticide factories,"

The creator of the agent: https://www.yahoo.com/news/russians-says-chemist-uncovered-existence-novichok-075342077.html

>The only other possibility, he said, would be that someone used the formulas in his book to make such a weapon.

So where can i get his book? On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/State-Secrets-Insiders-Chronicle-Chemical/dp/1432725661

So anyone with an amazon-account and access to a laboratory can create the agent.

Yeah, i aint buying it. Someone is banging on the drums of war, and i dont like it.

He did. And the book is available on Amazon or Google Books. Link 1, link 2.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/State-Secrets-Insiders-Chronicle-Chemical/dp/1432725661/

This book authored by the man that was on the team that created the nerve agent. https://www.amazon.com/State-Secrets-Insiders-Chronicle-Chemical/dp/1432725661

Da nakon sto su izvrsili svoju "istragu", nakon sto su izneli svoje zakljucke i osude i nakon sto su sazvali savet bezbednosti.

Ono, obicno kazna i osuda dolaze nakon nezavisne istrage, ali jebiga nema potrebe sada :)

I to doslovno za sada sve sto imamo jeste rec UK da je koriscen uopste taj nervni gas. Niko drugo nije to potvrdio. Britanija je sada spremna na saradnju kazu sa OPWC, ali OPWC jos ili nije dobio uzorke ili nisu jos testirali, jer od njih zvanicne reci nema.

Eksperti iz velike britanije i bivsi OPWC naucnici doslovno kazu da uopste koriscenje ovog nervnog gasa bi bilo nemoguce i detektovati.

Takodje Rusija nije jedina koja moze da stvori ovaj gas

>"The Novichok agents are thought to be far more difficult to detect during manufacturing and far easier to manufacture covertly, because they can be made with common chemicals in relatively simple pesticide factories," the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons says in its Weapons of Mass Casualties and Terrorism Response Handbook.

Lik koji tvrdi da je dizajnirao gas je objavio knjigu na amazonu

https://www.amazon.com/State-Secrets-Insiders-Chronicle-Chemical/dp/1432725661

Prema njemu ako neko razume knjigu dovoljno mogao bi sam da napravi...

Thanks for your apprehension and let me add some thoughts to your list:

-First of all, Skripal.

He was arrested in 2004. In 2006 he was sentenced to 13 years in prison and was pardoned and freed as part of spy swap between UK and Russia in 2010.

So, if Russia wanted him dead, why not to kill him silently in prison? Why pardon him?

He did not pose a danger for Russia as they freed him. Consequently, it seems irrational for Russian gov/specs to hunt him instead of many pain-in-the-ass defectors who really cooperate with UK, US.

-The gas.
Inventor of Novichok lives in US for a long time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vil_Mirzayanov

He even wrote a book https://www.amazon.com/State-Secrets-Insiders-Chronicle-Chemical/dp/1432725661 where he tries to publish Novichok's formula (not exact though).

Novichok was produced mainly at Nukus site in Uzbekistan (it was part of USSR at the time).

After USSR collapsed and Uzbekistan become independent state, Nukus site was dismantled and decontaminated with help of US Department of Defence (ref: wikipedia page on Novichok).

According to this, it's hard to say that only Russia had access to Novichok.

-Motivation

Personally, I don't see any benefits from this event for Putin, only drawbacks.

Why kill him just before elections? He will easily win without world scandal.

Why kill him just before World Cup? Russia spend a lot of money to prepare for WC.

Today's Russia reputation is well-known. Russia is under sanctions. Why risking much heavier sanctions or even WW3 just to 'send message'?

Instead. Someone in this thread noted that West has united against Russia. Paraphrasing Voltaire, "if Russia did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novichok_agent

> To circumvent the Chemical Weapons Convention list of controlled precursors, classes of chemical and physical form

http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=1693

https://www.amazon.com/State-Secrets-Insiders-Chronicle-Chemical/dp/1432725661

> The big area of interest here seems to be about Phosphorylated Alkanoyl Chloride Oximes, from Zhurnal Obshchei Khimii. The Trialkyl Phosphate should be relatively easy to prepare, as it is seen in the syntheses of many nerve agents:

> PCl3 + ROH --(CCl4)--> P(OR3) + RCl + HCl

> As for the second reactant, X-C(R1)2-NO2, What if the two R1 groups were substituted with Cl and F, respectively? Alternately, if they were ALL substituted with Cl, then it becomes a very familiar compound--Chloropicrin. The question then is whether or not this would react in the same way.

> If so, then the reaction to produce a very dangerous Nerve Agent looks to be unbelievably simple:

> PCl3 + ROH --(CCl4)--> P(OR)3

> P(OR)3 + CCl3NO2 --(CCl4)--> PO4R2(N=CCl2)

One of the reason Soviets wanted it was precisely because it would be easy and legal to make, thus available anywhere

edit: I see a lot of downvotes but not a lot of convincing arguments hahaha

and this, kids, is how wars get started on nothing but empty soundbites and herd mentality...

 

> No motive for anyone else to do it

As a matter of fact, Russia is the one country that stands to gain the least from all of this. But seeing that you are so fucking sure about yourself why don't you enlighten us with Russia's motive?

I know, they did it to "send a message". What message, exactly? That they went into a lot of trouble to hide an illegal program from OPCW watch dogs only to reveal it months later?

https://www.opcw.org/news/article/opcw-director-general-commends-major-milestone-as-russia-completes-destruction-of-chemical-weapons-stockpile-under-opcw-verification/

If they really wanted to send a message to the spy community and possible defectors, they wouldn't have use a fucking megaphone, a simple whisper would suffice.

 

>Governmental level of knowledge to produce this poison

Propaganda bullshit.

>>Scientists who worked on the Novichok project disclosed details from 1992 onwards. They stated that the project goals included developing weapons that:

>> could not be detected by the then standard NATO chemical weapons detection sensors

>> have potential to circumvent the Chemical Weapons Convention

>> would be easier to produce using methods and materials prevalent in pesticides industries

>> were designed from the outset to be “binary” chemical weapons (where two relatively non-toxic materials are mixed together just before dispersal to minimise the danger to the personnel delivering the weapons).

Also to keep in mind, what is the point of developing a program designed to be "secret" just to advertise it to the whole world by using it to poison a literal nobody?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-we-know-about-novichok-the-newby-nerve-agent-linked-to-russia/

The details are also published on a book that anyone can get from amazon or other stores.

https://www.amazon.com/State-Secrets-Insiders-Chronicle-Chemical/dp/1432725661/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520920301&sr=8-1&keywords=vil+mirzayanov


We know, for a fact, that it has been developed outside Russia.

http://www.ieee.es/en/Galerias/fichero/docs_opinion/2012/DIEEEO33-2012_AnalisisAmenazaQuimicaBiologicaSiria_RenePita_ENGLISH.pdf

 

>It fits with a pattern of Russia killing its traitors

No it does not. Russia has been engaged in spy swapping for decades and if they really tried to kill a double agent it would seriously hinder their ability to attract defectors from other countries and their ability to swap agents in the future.

https://nypost.com/2018/03/08/putins-latest-murder-breaks-the-biggest-rule-of-the-spy-game/

 

>Britain and its partners don't have licences to kill any more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Chc1U04bRM

>A very rare chemical only produced in quantity by Russia.

For which the formula can be found in this book on Amazon.

Craig Murray was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004.

Further - since you apparently didn't bother reading.

He simply saved me the typing of the evidence from Dr. Robin Black, Head of the Detection Laboratory at the UK’s only chemical weapons facility - you know the guy in charge of the only facility in the UK's government that could make the claim that is being made by May.

Oh, and then he also provided evidence from The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) - THE UN body in charge of classifying and enforcing international Chemical Weapons bans - you know the people that we used to justify wars in Syria, Iraq, etc.

OH - and... the evidence claims this "Newcomer" agent came from Soviets working in Uzbekistan... you know, the country that this "no name blogger" was the British Ambassador to when:

>And finally – Mirzayanov is an Uzbek name and the novichok programme, assuming it existed, was in the Soviet Union but far away from modern Russia, at Nukus in modern Uzbekistan. I have visited the Nukus chemical weapons site myself. It was dismantled and made safe and all the stocks destroyed and the equipment removed by the American government, as I recall finishing while I was Ambassador there. There has in fact never been any evidence that any “novichok” ever existed in Russia itself.

In case you missed it:

>#while I was Ambassador there

But yeah, scraping the bottom of the barrel with a complete nutter on the Internet here.

OH, and lest I forget:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/State-Secrets-Insiders-Chronicle-Chemical/dp/1432725661

The fucking formula is in that book, you can go buy it right now.

What do you mean I necro'ed this comment? I don't even know what that means. Why would I be afraid of your response? I'm not pushing for any narrative here, I'm actively seeking answers and giving you the opportunity to share the evidence.
Here is the "TV show" and as it turns out, its an interview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5nHrCMExaQ&ab_channel=RT Why don't you check your own sources?
First of all, Novichok originated in Russia yes. But it might surprise you that this Russian chemist Vil Mirzayanov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vil_Mirzayanov exposed the formula to the public which anyone can use to create their own Novichok, you can even buy a book on amazon that details its production https://www.amazon.com/State-Secrets-Insiders-Chronicle-Chemical/dp/1432725661 This chemist now lives in the US. Also the OPCW concluded that they could not find evidence against Russia, so you are wrong that "all" intelligence agencies confirmed it was Russia that did it. Which agencies are you talking about anyway?
No I am not, this has got to be the worst attempt at straw manning I have ever encountered.... I actually feel ashamed for you..
Really, all I am asking is for evidence and I am still patiently waiting.

https://www.amazon.com/State-Secrets-Insiders-Chronicle-Chemical/dp/1432725661/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520920301&sr=8-1&keywords=vil+mirzayanov

Published in this book by a russian defector who used to work on it. You can also google when and where the recipe got released and it all comes back down on this book.

Nope, there's a layer of deniability still available to Russia:

The Weapon was originally made by Russia, sure. I mean we did keep it secret for years, but someone defected and wrote a book on how we were skirting the OPCW... But once this secret was out, plenty of people could have made it. Hell you can buy the instructions on Amazon.

This attack was obviously just a rogue chemical engineer that decided to create and use this obscure chemical weapon to settle a score or something...

>> It's classified because it has potentially dangerous information about Chemical Weapons
>
> 12 : The name and structure of the identified toxic chemical are contained in the full
classified report of the Secretariat, available to States Parties.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/State-Secrets-Insiders-Chronicle-Chemical/dp/1432725661

You can go to Amazon to find out the formulae of these agents. £5.89 for a kindle edition.
How can telling us what chemicals be a leak of "potentially dangerous" information?

It's all circumstancial "evidence" strung together very carefully to try to ignore all the inconvenient evidence as a massive propaganda exercise to try to kick Russia of the UNSC.

I'm not the one misleading, you are.

Anyone could've bought Mirzayanov's book from 2008. To think that government agencies that spend trillions on defence do not have the capability to buy a book and recreate it is naive. Honestly, I think they'd have the knowledge even without it - for a state to recreate a nerve agent is nothing sophisticated really.