LONDON (Reuters) - Novichok, the nerve agent that Germany says was used to poison Alexei Navalny, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin who is in a coma in a Berlin hospital, was developed in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s.
- The name Novichok means "newcomer". It is used for a family of highly toxic nerve agents with a composition slightly different from the better known poison gases VX and sarin.
