AP Explains: Novichok that sickened Navalny a Cold War relic

MOSCOW (AP) — Novichok, a deadly nerve agent that has left Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny in a coma and nearly killed a former Russian spy and his daughter in 2018, was the product of a highly secretive Soviet chemical weapons program. Just a few milligrams of the odorless liquid — the weight of a snowflake — are enough to kill a person within minutes. Novichok-class agents only were manufactured in lab quantities. The agent could be diluted and added to food or drink, or applied to surfaces or clothes. In the Salisbury attack, it was sprayed on the front door of the former spy’s house after being smuggled into Britain in a counterfeit perfume bottle.