MOSCOW. Sept 2 (Interfax) - Even private laboratories can create Novichok-type toxic agents, the German government's statement on the reasons why opposition politician Alexei Navalny's health had deteriorated does not make the picture of what happened clearer, Sergei Modestov, vice president of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences, said.
"Any sufficiently advanced entity, including a private one, can make it [a toxic agent], the state's involvement is not mandatory in this case," Modestov told Interfax on Wednesday.
"In any case, I mean the very same Novichok. And what does it mean ultimately? In essence, there's nothing incriminating us or anyone else in it. They need to look further for who did it," the expert said.
German government spokesperson Steffen Seibert said earlier on Wednesday that a Bundeswehr laboratory had found traces of a Novichok-type toxic agent in Navalny's system.