The use of nerve agents is synonymous with Russian espionage for those of us who remember the recent poisonings of Alexei Navalny, Sergei and Yulia Skripal and the residents of Salisbury caught up in the latters’ attempted murders. The origins of this weapon, however, remain shrouded in mystery. Sergei Lebedev is a Russian novelist, currently based in Berlin. He has come onto Warfare to discuss the little known conception of Novichok in the closed town of Shikhany, 600 miles south of Moscow. Sergei explores the cooperation between the Soviets and Weimar Republic Germany from the 1920s until 1932, and delves into the moral responsibilities of making scientific discoveries with the capacity for destruction.

Sergei's new book, Untraceable, follows a ruthless chemist in his search for a new nerve agent, and is available in the UK from Head of Zeus (https://headofzeus.com/books/9781800246591) and in the US by New Vessel Press (https://newvesselpress.com/books/untraceable/).