LONDON —— The United Kingdom accused Russia of developing and stockpiling nerve agents for a decade, after Moscow suggested that a British laboratory may have been the source of the substance used to poison a former spy and his daughter.
“We actually had evidence within the last 10 years that Russia has not only been investigating the delivery of nerve agents for the purposes of assassination but has also been creating and stockpiling Novichok,” U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Sunday on BBC. “To the best of our knowledge, this is a Russian-made nerve agent that falls within the category of Novichok, made only by Russia.”
Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’s ambassador to the European Union, also on BBC, said his country has “no stockpiles whatsoever” of nerve agents. He said Porton Down, a U.K. military facility, has conducted research on chemical weapons 8 miles from Salisbury, the city in western England where double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found poisoned March 4. Asked if he was blaming Britain, he said he didn’t have “any evidence of anything having being used.”
Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament last week that the Skripals, who remain in critical condition, were poisoned with a weapons-grade nerve agent from the Novichok group. She accused the Kremlin of an “unlawful use of force” against the U.K and ordered the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats over the first use of a nerve agent on European soil since World War II.
The Foreign Ministry in Moscow retaliated on Saturday by expelling the same number of British envoys. It also ordered the closing of the British consulate in St. Petersburg and told the British Council to end its activities in Russia.
Johnson dismissed Chizhov’s comments as “satirical” and said Britain’s National Security Council will decide this week how to respond to Russia’s tit-for-tat expulsions. On Friday, Johnson directly accused Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying it was “overwhelmingly likely” that he ordered the chemical attack.
Inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague will arrive in Britain Monday, Johnson said.
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(Kelly Gilblom contributed to this report.)
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