Continued...

Having re-read yesterday's post, it occurred to me that perhaps I had stumbled on a salient fact.  It is accepted that the nerve agent involved dates back to the days of the USSR.  Now I seem to remember that one of the perceived problems surrounding the collapse of the USSR was - what would happen to its weapons - particularly nuclear and chemical.  And I don't think there was ever any proper "audit" showing that all such munitions were accounted for.  So could some of this nerve agent have gone "missing" at that point in time - in which case the current Russian government might genuinely know nothing about it?  Just a thought.