"Secret institutes like the infamous "Poison Factory," known in the KGB as Laboratory 1 or "kamera" (for "the cell"), were set up during the early years of the Cold War to study chemical and biological agents that could be used to murder quietly. Laboratory 1 specialized in refining special toxins, like the ricin pellet the KGB provided to their Bulgarian allies, and used in the infamous assassination of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov on a London bridge in 1978."
"Today is no different. Some assassinations are believed to be directly ordered by Putin in what the Russians call "direct action" (pryamoye deistviye, also known colloquially as mokroe delo, or wet work), while others are believed to be carried out with his implied approval. Poison factories continue to function inside of Russia. Today, the FSB uses a modern "kamera" which helped refine the nerve agent Novichok for use against the defector Sergei Skripal in the 2018 Salisbury UK attack."
State security operations have long targeted rivals and dissidents, including Stalin’s plot that ended with Leon Trotsky’s assassination and the return of assassin Ramon Mercader as a Hero of the Soviet Union. KGB Laboratory 1, the 'Poison Factory' or 'kamera,' specialized in chemical and biological agents and refined toxins such as a ricin pellet used to kill Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in 1978. Contemporary Russian security services continue similar practices; the FSB's modern 'kamera' helped refine Novichok, used against Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018 and in the attempted poisoning of Alexei Navalny. Use of Novichok signals state responsibility and prolongs a tradition of extreme measures.
Read at The Cipher Brief
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