Two years ago, British intelligence alleged that Russia’s military intelligence agency, known as the GRU, used a nerve agent from the Novichok family — an exotic Soviet-developed class of chemical weapons — to poison one of its former spies, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia. Depending on whom you ask, the operation was either a tremendous failure — the only death was that of a U.K. woman who was exposed to the poison by accident, and both Skripals recovered — or a very successful, very public message to Russia’s spies about the consequences of becoming a turncoat.
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(FILES) This file photo taken on Sept. 29, 2019 shows Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny delivering a speech during a demonstration in Moscow.
