This must be a new record for the New York Times. The first sentence in that article highlights a fundamental misunderstanding that should put anyone's guard up

This must be a new record for the New York Times. The first sentence in that article highlights a fundamental misunderstanding that should put anyone's guard up: > For nearly three decades, since a Soviet whistle-blower told the world of its existence, the nerve agent Novichok has scared American weapons experts. Cursory research would reveal that Novichok is a family of nerve agents, connected by the fact that they were likely to be unknown to NATO. More generally, it seems a strange claim for the UK government to make that the nerve agent was definitely a Novichok. This admits a level of knowledge of the substances that leads to serious questions, that nobody is asking, about whether this knowledge comes from having synthesised it. In order to study the effects and the time it takes for effectiveness, both details which the UK appears to have, synthesis would be very useful. If this is the case then Russia is not the only party capable of synthesis and this partly explains what the mysterious Porton Down facility has been working on since the Chemical Weapons Convention came into force in 97.