Some member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) gained access to the Soviet Union's so-called "Novichok" nerve agents in the 90s, through an informant recruited by German intelligence, reportedly. NATO countries refer to "Novichok class" nerve agents to describe a range of substances developed by the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia from the early 70s to at least 1993. They are believed to be the deadliest nerve agents never produced, but Moscow denies their very existence. A type of Novichok agent, described by British scientists as A234, is said to have been used in March of this year by the person or persons who tried to kill Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England. Skripal is a former Russian military intelligence officer who spied for Britain in the early 2000s and has lived in England since he was released from a Russian prison in 2010.
On Thursday two German newspapers, Die Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit, and two regional public radio broadcasters, WDR and NDR, claimed that the NATO alliance had access to the chemical composition of Novichok's nerve agents from the immediate aftermath of the collapse of L ' USSR in 1991. In particular, reports claimed that access was obtained through a Russian scientist who became an informant for the German Federal Intelligence Service, known as the BND. The scientist made an agreement with the BND: he provided the spy agency with technical information on Novichok's agents in exchange for safe passage to the West for him and his family. Initially, the German government was reluctant to get its hands on material that was - and remains - classified as a weapon of mass destruction by international agencies. But he eventually inquired about the chemical composition of Novichok's nerve agents and even acquired samples from the Russian informant.
According to media reports, the BND proceeded to share information on the chemical composition of Novichok's nerve agents with key NATO allies, including Sweden, France, Britain and the United States. Sharing such a sensitive substance was approved by then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, reports said. In the following years, a handful of NATO countries proceeded to produce what media reports described as "limited numbers" of Novichok agents, reportedly in order to test various defensive measures against them and produce antidotes. Russia has denied the allegation that it was involved in the Skripal poisoning and argued that other countries, some of them NATO members, have the capacity to produce Novichok agents.
