A range of Novichok agents were developed and tested in the 1970s and 1980s , but the intended Novichok weapons production site at the Pavlodar Chemical Plant in Soviet Kazakhstan was still under construction when it was decided to demolish the chemical weapons building in 1987 in view of the forthcoming Chemical Weapons Convention . In March 2018 , former GRU agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned in Salisbury , United Kingdom by a chemical agent later confirmed to be Novichok . The incident raised new controversy over Russia 's potential production and use of chemical weapons , with the United Kingdom accusing the Russian government or rogue Russian agents of orchestrating the attack , a claim Russia repeatedly denied
were poisoned
Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
Russia and weapons of mass destruction