Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
On 21 March 1994, ITN’s Andrew Veitch reported on Moscow scientists’ claims that the Russian army was developing a secret nerve agent, Novichok‑5, allegedly many times more potent than existing weapons. The report featured Dr Vil Mirzayanov, a former Soviet chemical‑weapons scientist whose whistleblowing in the early 1990s first exposed Russia’s clandestine “Novichok” programme at institutes including the State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology (GosNIIOKhT).
The story came amid turbulence in post‑Soviet Russia: just months after President Boris Yeltsin used the army to defeat a hostile parliament in the October 1993 constitutional crisis known as 'Black October', relations between parts of the military and the Kremlin remained sensitive in early 1994. Internationally, governments were moving toward a comprehensive ban on such weapons. The Chemical Weapons Convention had opened for signature in January 1993 and would enter into force in April 1997; in spring 1994, the US Senate was holding hearings on ratification.
Novichok returned to world headlines in 2018, when former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in the UK city of Salisbury. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed the UK’s finding that a Novichok‑class agent had been used; subsequent investigations attributed the operation to Russian military intelligence. A 2025 UK public inquiry concluded the attack must have been authorised “at the highest level.”
#Russia #SovietUnion #ColdWar #Novichok #ChemicalWeapons #Spies #KGB #FSB #Putin #VladimirPutin #Poison #AlexeiNavalny #BiologicalWeapons #Espionage #1990s
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On 21 March 1994, ITN’s Andrew Veitch reported on Moscow scientists’ claims that the Russian army was developing a secret nerve agent, Novichok‑5, allegedly many times more potent than existing weapons. The report featured Dr Vil Mirzayanov, a former Soviet chemical‑weapons scientist whose whistleblowing in the early 1990s first exposed Russia’s clandestine “Novichok” programme at institutes including the State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology (GosNIIOKhT).
The story came amid turbulence in post‑Soviet Russia: just months after President Boris Yeltsin used the army to defeat a hostile parliament in the October 1993 constitutional crisis known as 'Black October', relations between parts of the military and the Kremlin remained sensitive in early 1994. Internationally, governments were moving toward a comprehensive ban on such weapons. The Chemical Weapons Convention had opened for signature in January 1993 and would enter into force in April 1997; in spring 1994, the US Senate was holding hearings on ratification.
Novichok returned to world headlines in 2018, when former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in the UK city of Salisbury. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed the UK’s finding that a Novichok‑class agent had been used; subsequent investigations attributed the operation to Russian military intelligence. A 2025 UK public inquiry concluded the attack must have been authorised “at the highest level.”
#Russia #SovietUnion #ColdWar #Novichok #ChemicalWeapons #Spies #KGB #FSB #Putin #VladimirPutin #Poison #AlexeiNavalny #BiologicalWeapons #Espionage #1990s
To license the footage featured in this clip, follow the link below:
gettyimages.co.uk/search/2/film?phrase=BSP210394032*&sort=mostpopular&family=editorial
To search the ITN Archive collection on Getty Images, follow the link below:
gettyimages.co.uk/footage/itn
🎥 Subscribe to our YouTube channel (tap the bell icon and stay up to date with all the latest ITN Archive videos!) - youtube.com/@FrontlinebyITN
🎥 Follow us on Twitter - twitter.com/ITNArchive
🎥 Like us on Facebook - facebook.com/ITNArchiveITNP
🎥 Check out our TikTok - tiktok.com/@itnarchive1955
