Jonathon B. Tucker writes that approval to commence research into "fourth generation" chemical weapons was given by the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Soviet Council of Ministers in May 1971. Vil Mirzayanov, the Russian scientist who first alerted the West to the existence of the Novichok agents, states that testing of Novichok-7 was successfully completed in 1993—after the signing of the Chemical Weapons Convention but before Russia ratified the treaty and when it came into force.[3][4]
Mirzayanov, Vil, Dismantling the Soviet/Russian Chemical Weapons Complex: An Insider's View, Global Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Hearings Before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, 104th Cong., 1995: 393–405
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Ivanov IuIa, Sokolov VB, Epishina TA, Martynov IV. O-substituted alkylchloroformoximes as substrates and inhibitors of cholinesterases. Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR. 1990;310(5):1253-5. PMID 2354654
Malygin VV, Sokolov VB, Richardson RJ, Makhaeva GF. Quantitative structure-activity relationships predict the delayed neurotoxicity potential of a series of O-alkyl-O-methylchloroformimino phenylphosphonates. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health Part A. 2003 Apr 11;66(7):611-25. PMID 12746136