HLSS522Wk3

Rawono1

Russiasdeadlynerveagentexplained_TheWeek.pdf

Home >Law homework help >HLSS522Wk3

ANALYSIS

Russia's deadly nerve agent, explained

Russia apparently used Novichok to attack an ex-spy on British soil. Aren't such weapons banned?

What makes a subscription to THE WEEKTHE WEEK

so valuable NOW? Subscribe for less than $3 per week with digital

L E A R N M O R E > >

https://theweek.com/

https://u989.theweek.com/s/a3g?profileid=3ea10b43-cf06-451f-ad93-fbe0eca80d65

solarseven/iStock

THE WEEK STAFF MARCH 31, 2018

Russia apparently used Novichok, a deadly nerve agent, to attack an ex-spy on British soil. Aren't such weapons banned?

Here's everything you need to know:

access and free home delivery.

What makes a subscription to THE WEEKTHE WEEK

so valuable NOW? Subscribe for less than $3 per week with digital

https://theweek.com/articles/764076/russias-deadly-nerve-agent-explained

mailto:?subject=Russia%27s%20deadly%20nerve%20agent%2C%20explained&body=https://theweek.com/articles/764076/russias-deadly-nerve-agent-explained

Who developed Novichok?

Western and former Soviet scientists say the nerve agent was created in a Soviet lab in the 1970s in what is now Uzbekistan.

During the Cold War, the U.S. and the Soviets ran secret chemical and biological weapons programs, experimenting with the

deadly pathogens that cause diseases like anthrax, smallpox, and plague. Russia denies it ever made advanced nerve agents,

but when Soviet chemist Vil Mirzayanov fled to the U.S. in the 1990s, he revealed the existence of Novichok, its chemical

makeup, and details of its production, saying the Soviets had stockpiled enough to kill several hundred thousand people.

Novichok is a binary compound, meaning it is made by combining two other, less dangerous substances just before it is

administered. That makes it hard to police. Once the poison comes into contact with a human body, it wages a fierce assault

on the nervous system, causing muscles to involuntarily and violently contract; victims can die of suffocation or heart failure

within minutes, their eyes rolled back. Even minute doses can cause permanent neurological damage. There is no reliable

antidote.

access and free home delivery.

What makes a subscription to THE WEEKTHE WEEK

so valuable NOW? Subscribe for less than $3 per week with digital

How did it get to the U.K.?

That's unclear. After whistleblowing ex-FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium in London in 2006,

investigators were able to trace the trail of the radioactive isotope across the city, implicating specific Russian agents and even

the Aeroflot flight they arrived on. Novichok, made on the spot, leaves no such signature. Sergei Skripal — a former double

agent who served time in Russia for betraying secrets to London — and his daughter, Yulia, keeled over on a park bench in

Salisbury. They are in intensive care, and a policeman who attended to them fell ill. More than 130 other people may have

been exposed and could develop seizures or motor disorders. The gruesome lethality of such weapons is why they are illegal

under international law.

access and free home delivery.

What makes a subscription to THE WEEKTHE WEEK

so valuable NOW? Subscribe for less than $3 per week with digital

When were they banned?

The Chemical Weapons Convention — negotiated after the Soviet Union broke up in 1991 and in force since 1997 — prohibits

the large-scale development, production, stockpiling, and transfer of chemical weapons. It was a huge breakthrough at the

time, and the U.S. helped the USSR's successor, Russia, destroy its stocks. Russia claims it finished doing so last September,

ahead of schedule and the U.S. But there's a loophole: Production of many toxic chemicals with industrial uses, such as in

fertilizer or medicine, is allowed as long as countries alert the international monitoring body. Such a system relies on the

good faith of the governments involved. Russian President Vladimir Putin scoffs at international norms and agreements, and

has drastically ramped up Russian research into biochemical agents.

What is Putin's motive?

In a 2012 essay in the government mouthpiece Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Putin said Russia should develop genetic and

"psychophysical" weapons to defend itself against its enemies. Since then, Russian researchers have been experimenting with

everything from chemicals for crowd control to genetically modified pathogens. Biosecurity in Putin's Russia, a new book by

Raymond Zilinskas and Philippe Mauger, documents the recent large buildup at more than two dozen Russian military labs

and government-run research centers, many of them former Soviet biochemical weapons sites. A walled complex in

Yekaterinburg — the site of a 1979 accidental anthrax release that killed 100 people — has a bunch of new warehouse-size

industrial buildings. Russian scientists have also been purchasing expensive, specialized lab equipment for freeze-drying

microbes and for testing aerosolized bacteria.

access and free home delivery.

What makes a subscription to THE WEEKTHE WEEK

so valuable NOW? Subscribe for less than $3 per week with digital

Do other countries have chemical weapons?

Russia claims, with no evidence, that the U.S. is still developing them (see box). It's clear that rogue states Syria and North

Korea do have them, and Russia has assisted both countries' programs. During the Syrian civil war, the Bashar al-Assad

regime has used sarin and chlorine gases against rebels and civilians numerous times, and Russia has used its veto power in

the U.N. Security Council to block investigations. After one such attack, President Obama struck a 2013 deal with Moscow to

remove Syria's chemical weapons, and the U.N. verified the destruction of the listed sites — but the attacks have continued.

North Korea, meanwhile, is believed to be behind the killing in Malaysia last year of Kim Jong Nam, the brother of Kim Jong

Un, with the nerve agent VX.

How is the West responding?

Following the Novichok attack, the British announced they were investing some $67 million in a new chemical weapons

defense center. The U.S. and other countries called on Russia to cooperate with an international investigation into the

Salisbury poisoning. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the attempted assassination was part of a pattern of

aggressive Russian behavior, including the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the cyberattacks on Western elections. He said that

the alliance was responding with "the biggest reinforcement of our collective defense since the end of the Cold War,"

including beefed-up troop presence in Eastern Europe and deployment of missile defenses. But U.S. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti,

the supreme allied commander of NATO, says the alliance is "struggling" over an appropriate response to a small-scale

chemical attack that Russia denies responsibility for. "This is a relatively new area we're dealing with," he said, "and we just

have to start thinking about this and coming to terms with it."

access and free home delivery.

What makes a subscription to THE WEEKTHE WEEK

so valuable NOW? Subscribe for less than $3 per week with digital

Russia's counter-accusations

President George H.W. Bush in 1991 committed the United States not to use chemical weapons for any reason, including

retaliating a chemical attack. While the U.S. missed a 2012 deadline to destroy all of its stockpiles, complete decommissioning

is scheduled for 2023. But Russia says the U.S. is secretly concocting new bioagents. Russian state sites have accused the U.S.

of being behind the Zika and Ebola outbreaks, citing U.S. assistance in containing the epidemics as proof of guilt. Last week,

Russian officials even suggested that the U.S. may have been responsible for the Novichok attack, using it as an excuse to

further demonize Russia. "The Americans had access," said lawmaker Alexei Chepa, "not only to the technology but to its

development."

Welcome a Different View Subscribe to The Week for less than $3 per week with digital access and free home delivery.

Learn more >>

WORLD

access and free home delivery.

What makes a subscription to THE WEEKTHE WEEK

so valuable NOW? Subscribe for less than $3 per week with digital

https://u989.theweek.com/s/a3l?profileid=3ea10b43-cf06-451f-ad93-fbe0eca80d65

https://theweek.com/world

https://theweek.com/articles/764076/russias-deadly-nerve-agent-explained

mailto:?subject=Russia%27s%20deadly%20nerve%20agent%2C%20explained&body=https://theweek.com/articles/764076/russias-deadly-nerve-agent-explained