Overview

Novichok, or Folient, Agents are binary Nerve Agents developed by the former Soviet Union and later by Russia through the mid 1980s until around 1993 when Russian scientist Vil Mirzayanov exposed the program to journalists as it was operating outside international treaties and the Russians showed no concern for its environmental and human health impacts (Tucker, 2006). The Russians, under the [Wyoming MOU} signed with the United States in 1989, were forced to declare all stocks of Chemical Weapons but they kept the Novichok agents development secret. The weapons were much more toxic than Nerve Agents ever synthesized.

References

Tucker, Johnathon B. War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare from World War I to Al-Qaeda. Pantheon Books, 2006.