Crazy as a Bagfull of Cats

There has been a second incident of Novichok poisoning near Porton Down in England.

While this the Russian nerve agent is described as persistent, this does not mean "eternal", and for something like VX, which is the most persistent of the better known agents, would be likely be degraded to harmlessness in about a month, particularly in the mild and wet climate of southern England.

Thus, I found the most recent poisoning to be perplexing, until I discovered that the Novichok came from a bottle that the man had apparently found dumpster diving.

This would explain how the Novichok remained viable for so long, but the idea that a crack Russian assassin team would dose the door knob of the Skripal and then take the left over agent and throw it in the dumpster.

I can see the need to carry more than is necessary, and the need to dispose of the excess afterwards, but anyone with even a modicum of knowledge would know how to deactivate Novichuk before disposing of the container.

Basically, you would dump it in a bucket of household bleach.

None of this makes sense as an FSB/GRU assassination team.

In fact, the only scenario that has a comprehensible narrative is that there is some lunatic at Porton Down is doing the whole Bruce Ivins thing, which is even more frightening, because it is completely unpredictable.