Category Archives: Novichok poisonings

‘Minuscule’ amount of novichok could have been fatal, scientist tells inquiry

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Witness from Porton Down laboratory says ‘many lethal doses’ of nerve agent were applied to Sergei Skripal’s door

A “minuscule” amount of the nerve agent used in the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal – as small as a sixth of a grain of salt – could have been enough to prove fatal, a government scientist has told an inquiry.

The scientist, an expert in chemical and biological weapons, said “many lethal doses” of novichok were daubed on the handle of the former Russian spy’s front door in Salisbury and it was so pure that it must have been manufactured by a sophisticated laboratory.

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Official feared child would find discarded novichok, inquiry hears

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Ex-chief medical officer says it is possible she may not have made a public warning over risks

The former chief medical officer for England claimed she had a “strong recollection” of advising the public not to pick up objects they found near the scene of the novichok attack on the Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal, despite there being no record of her making such a statement.

Dame Sally Davies, who was speaking at the inquiry into the Salisbury poisonings in Wiltshire, said she had a recurrent nightmare that a child would find a discarded container of the nerve agent.

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Paramedic gave Sergei Skripal novichok antidote by chance, inquiry hears

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Knocked-over bag led to unintended use of drug to counter nerve agents, which may have saved former Russian spy

A paramedic has described the extraordinary moment he knocked over a drugs bag as he treated the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and then by chance gave him a nerve agent antidote that may have saved his life.

Emergency services workers who went to help Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, after they were poisoned with the nerve agent novichok, initially suspected they may have been experiencing the effects of a recreational drugs overdose.

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Police insisted second Salisbury novichok attack was drug overdose, inquiry told

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Inspector dismissed emergency services’ concerns that incident was similar to Skripal poisonings, KC says

Police officers urged paramedics and firefighters to treat the second novichok incident in 2018 as a drug overdose despite warnings from the ambulance and fire services that it had similarities to the first poisoning four months earlier in Salisbury, a public inquiry has heard.

The UK government believes the novichok was brought into Britain by agents tasked by Vladimir Putin to target the former spy Sergei Skripal, who had been settled in Salisbury after a spy exchange, the inquiry heard earlier this week. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were poisoned on 4 March 2018 and both survived.

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Inquiry into novichok death of Dawn Sturgess to begin in autumn 2024

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Exclusive: date set for start of long-awaited hearing into Wiltshire woman’s 2018 poisoning

The long-awaited independent inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess in the Wiltshire novichok poisonings will begin in autumn 2024, the Guardian can reveal.

Sturgess’s father, Stan Sturgess, expressed relief that a date had been set and said he hoped it would mean that those responsible for the attack would be held to account.

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Novichok poisonings: Nick Bailey reaches settlement with police force

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Bailey says he has continued to suffer from trauma of nerve agent attack in Salisbury in March 2018

A police officer who suffered novichok poisoning when he searched the home of the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal following the Salisbury nerve agent attack has reached a settlement with his former force.

Lawyers for Nick Bailey argued that he continued to suffer from the trauma of the poisoning more than four years on and made a personal injury claim against Wiltshire police.

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UK imposes sanctions on seven Russians over Navalny poisoning

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FCDO says the individuals, said to be FSB members, will be subject to travel bans and asset freezes

Sanctions have been imposed on seven Russian nationals accused of involvement in the nerve agent poisoning of the key Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, the UK government has said.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) announced that the individuals, said to be members of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), would be subject to travel bans and asset freezes.

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Czech police hunt two men with names matching Skripal suspects

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News follows announcement of expulsion of 18 Russia diplomats identified as spies linked to 2014 blast that killed two people

Czech police have said they are seeking two Russian men in connection with a 2014 blast that killed two people. The men, they said, hold passports used by the suspects in the attempted poisoning of Sergei Skripal.

The names match those used by the two men accused of poisoning Skripal and his daughter Yulia with the Soviet-era nerve agent novichok in the English city of Salisbury in 2018. Russia denied involvement in the poisoning, but about 300 diplomats were sent home in subsequent tit-for-tat expulsions.

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Alexei Navalny ordered to be detained on return to Russia, say officials

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Opposition politician has been in Germany since August following suspected poisoning by FSB

Russia’s prison service says it has orders to detain Alexei Navalny, a statement made days before the opposition politician is due to return to Russia after recuperating abroad from a suspected FSB poisoning.

Navalny could face prison time when he gets off the plane in Moscow on Sunday. Officials said they would take him into custody for failing to appear for parole reviews after he was attacked with a novichok-style poison in August.

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Alexei Navalny to return to Russia following poisoning

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Opposition leader says he plans to fly back on Sunday from Germany despite risk of jail term

Russia’s opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, has said he will return to the country five months after falling victim to a suspected FSB poisoning, risking his own freedom to issue a direct challenge to the Kremlin.

Navalny, who has been recovering in Berlin since he was targeted in August with a novichok-style poison, said he planned to fly back to Russia on Sunday despite clear signs that Moscow is searching for a pretext to jail him.

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Novichok diagnosed within days, say Alexei Navalny’s German doctors

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Russian opposition leader says article in The Lancet holds the proof Vladimir Putin has demanded

The Berlin doctors who treated Alexei Navalny have published clinical details of his novichok poisoning, in what the Russian opposition leader called the medical proof repeatedly denied by President Vladimir Putin.

In an article in The Lancet medical journal, doctors at Berlin’s Charite hospital detail the symptoms observed as Navalny was admitted into their care in August. They provide information on his physical responses as infusions, treatments, CT scans and MRIs were carried out.

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Kremlin accuses Alexei Navalny of ‘comparing himself to Jesus’

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Opposition leader has a persecution complex and delusions of grandeur, says spokesman for Vladimir Putin

A Kremlin spokesman has accused the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny of having a “persecution complex” and of “comparing himself to Jesus”, in an extended and unusual attack indicative of anger over recent revelations about the FSB domestic intelligence service.

Last week, the investigative website Bellingcat published details of the eight FSB officers who allegedly poisoned Navalny in August. Then on Monday, Navalny released a recording of a bombshell telephone call in which he tricked an FSB officer into revealing details of the alleged plot, which apparently centred on the application of novichok to the “inner seams” of Navalny’s boxer shorts.

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Navalny says Russian officer admits putting poison in underwear

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Opposition leader apparently dupes spy agency worker into revealing role in novichok plot

One of the operatives allegedly involved in the attempt to kill Alexei Navalny has confessed to his role in the plot, and has revealed that the Russian opposition leader was apparently poisoned via his underwear.

Navalny phoned two members of the team from Russia’s FSB spy agency, which allegedly tried to murder him. One recognised him immediately and hung up. The second operative, Konstantin Kudryavtsev, was seemingly duped into thinking he was talking to an aide working for a top FSB general.

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Russian FSB hit squad poisoned Alexei Navalny, report says

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Telecoms and travel data shows activist was shadowed on multiple trips before his poisoning in August, Bellingcat reports

An undercover hit squad working for Russia’s FSB spy agency poisoned the opposition activist Alexei Navalny in August, after shadowing him on multiple previous trips, the investigative website Bellingcat has claimed.

Citing “voluminous” telecoms and travel data, Bellingcat reported that the squad had secretly tracked Navalny since 2017. The operation apparently began after he announced plans to stand against Vladimir Putin in presidential elections.

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UK has mounted covert attacks against Russian leadership, says ex-mandarin

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Former cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill says UK used offensive cyber-capability to exploit Moscow’s ‘vulnerabilities’

Britain has carried a series of covert attacks on Russia’s leaders and their allies, the former cabinet secretary has disclosed.

Mark Sedwill said the UK had sought to exploit Moscow’s “vulnerabilities”, including through the deployment of its recently declared offensive cyber-capability.

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Police officer poisoned by novichok in Salisbury to quit

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DS Nick Bailey says he ‘can no longer do the job’ despite trying hard to ‘make it work’

The police officer who almost died after he was exposed to novichok during the Salisbury poisonings in 2018 has announced he is quitting the force.

DS Nick Bailey, who came into contact with the nerve agent when he and two colleagues searched the Salisbury home of the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, said he was leaving Wiltshire police after 18 years because he “can no longer do the job”.

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EU sanctions Kremlin chiefs over Alexei Navalny poisoning

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Bloc targeting six Russians, including FSB chief, over ‘assassination attempt’ on opposition figure

The EU has announced sanctions against members of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, including the head of Russia’s domestic spy agency, over the poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny.

The EU said it had agreed sanctions against six people believed to have been involved in the “assassination attempt” against Putin’s most vocal critic.

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Alexei Navalny out of German hospital after treatment for poisoning

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Doctors say Russian opposition leader could make full recovery from exposure to suspected novichok

Alexei Navalny has been discharged from Berlin’s Charité hospital after spending 32 days as an inpatient, following what German authorities say was poisoning with a novichok nerve agent and with doctors suggesting he could make a full recovery.

The hospital said in a statement on Wednesday morning that the Russian opposition politician’s condition had “improved sufficiently for him to be discharged from acute inpatient care”, and added that he had left on Tuesday.

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Novichok ‘found on water bottle in Alexei Navalny’s hotel room’

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Development suggests Russian opposition leader poisoned in Tomsk, not at airport

Associates of Alexei Navalny have said traces of novichok were found on a bottle of water in his hotel room in Tomsk, suggesting he was poisoned while in the Siberian city, and not, as previously suspected, from a cup of tea he drank at the airport.

The Russian opposition leader fell ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow on 20 August. The plane made an emergency landing in Omsk, where he spent two days in a coma before being flown by a medical jet to Berlin. He remains in the Charité hospital in the German capital.

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Alexei Navalny continues to improve, say German doctors

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Russian opposition leader taken off ventilator and can leave his bed, hospital reports

The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been taken off a ventilator and is able to leave his bed for short periods of time, German doctors who have been treating him for novichok poisoning have said.

In a significant update, the Charité hospital in Berlin said Navalny’s condition “continues to improve” and hinted that he was able to talk. It said latest news of his health was made public after consultation with Navalny and his wife.

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