German company suspected of supplying components for Novichok military poison to Russia

Tagesschau wrote about this. 

The prosecutor's office suspects that over the past three and a half years, the company's managers have exported poisonous substances and special laboratory equipment to Russia more than 30 times without the appropriate permits.

The prosecutor's office confirmed the searches in seven companies and private locations.

"There is a suspicion of unauthorized export of goods to Russia", a representative of the prosecutor's office said. 

Law enforcement officials believe that these substances contain chemicals that can be used as raw materials for the production of chemical and biological warfare agents, including mustard gas. They are said to have been exported in small quantities to Khimmed, a Moscow-based Russian wholesaler of chemicals and laboratory equipment. This follows from documents that reached the journalists of NDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung.

According to the NDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung investigation, it may be about the export of chemical and biological substances that can be used as raw materials for the production of combat poisons - in particular, the Novichok nerve-paralytic gas. 

According to information from the journalistic network OCCRP, which cooperates with NDR, WDR, and SZ, Khimmed also supplied special laboratories for the Russian military and Russia's Security Service, the FSB.