Science's News StaffA notorious nerve poison is back in the news. The German government said today that Alexei Navalny, a prominent opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was poisoned with a chemical similar to Novichok, a deadly nerve agent implicated in other attacks on Russians who have crossed the current regime.A German military laboratory has found “unequivocal evidence of a chemical nerve agent of the Novichok group” in biological samples taken from Navalny, who was flown to Germany for treatment after being hospitalized in Siberia on 20 August, government spokesperson Steffen Seibert said.
Navalny had fallen ill not long after drinking tea, which his family has suggested was poisoned. Novichok agents, which were developed by.