SO DAMP LUCKY Ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia were saved by bungling hitman — and rain which washed Novichok gel off door knob

THE lives of poisoned ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia were saved by a bungling hitman and British rain.

The assassin who smeared the Novichok gel nerve agent on Skripal’s door knob failed to understand it needed dry conditions to be fully potent.

And the damp air in Salisbury in March caused its potency to degrade so Skripal, 66, and Yulia, 33, were not exposed to its full deadly effect, said ex-Moscow scientist Vil Mirzayanov.

Mirzayanov, who helped develop Novichok, said: “The substance was used when it was quite foggy — water droplets were in the air. It can be used only in dry air.

“In such weather conditions this substance could be used only by an idiot who knows nothing about the chemical characteristics of Novichok.

“If you drop it into water in some hours no trace will be left. It dissolves in water.”