Georgia Denies Russian Claims of Novichok Production in Tbilisi

Georgian officials have categorically denied allegations that Novichok and similar chemical agents are being developed at the Richard Lugar Research Center near Tbilisi. This comes in response to statements made by Yuri Shvytkin, the deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma’s Defense Committee, who claimed that laboratories producing Novichok-type chemicals exist in Georgia and the United States, while such materials are not produced in Russia.

The official spoke out after comments from German government spokesman Steffen Seibert, who indicated that Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who was hospitalized from the Tomsk-Moscow flight, had been poisoned with such substances. “It has been announced that the A234 lethal substance is being developed at the Lugar laboratory, which is nonsense and absurdity,” said the Georgian official.