MOSCOW. April 12 (Interfax) - Novichok-type chemical agents became widely spread in the West and accessible to many foreign laboratories in the 1990s; for instance, they were synthesized in the United States, Russian Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Georgy Kalamanov told Interfax.
"We can draw a definitive conclusion that agents attributed to the Novichok family of chemical agents by a number of authors became widely spread in the West and accessible to many foreign laboratories in the middle of the 1990s," Kalamanov said.
"Therefore, it would be wrong to say that Russia is the origin of these toxins," he said.