The answer seemed quite obvious : Kavtun had come from Hamburg, so the Prosecutor of Hamburg had juridisction to open a criminal procedure – which they alledgedly did (I personaly can't remember if I heard at the time if one was being conducted, but it seems likely, as it is a standard procedure in such a case).
Which seems a valid objection, but not fatal. Judiciary papers , as far as I can tell from personal experience, do not come with a complete official header on each page. It is possible that the file came with one or more official headed presentation page, as can be the case with official documents.
Yes, they did agree that the Porton Down laboratory had found Novichok. It is less clear if they themselves detected it (although according to sputnik, Lavrov stated that they had). But in the statement is nowhere to be found a denegation that they identified BZ (and incidently, the assertion that they had has to be confronted with the reported behaviour of Skripal).
Neither am I convinced. But it does cast a doubt. The more important thing in my eyes is that I can not see a good motive for the Germans not having denied the authenticty of the letter (I personaly suspect that they agreed to its divulgation, just my 2 cent).
Well, they would really be the worst assassins in the world. And in great danger of retribution from evil-mastermind-behind-all-bad-things-in-the-world Putin.
And they spread enough Novichok to poison a police officer in addition of the Skripals, but not enough to kill Sergei Skripal ? The whole story appears more and more convoluted.
A message right in the middle of critical international tensions, with the consequences that a 10-year-old child could foresee ?
