Russia's foreign minister has accused Britain and the United States of spreading "lies and disinformation" about the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in England.

Britain has said Russia is likely behind the March 4 nerve agent attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. Moscow has vehemently denied any involvement.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denounced the British accusations on Monday as a "mad and horrible provocation." He insisted that Moscow had no motive to attack Skripal, who was released from a Russian prison during a 2010 spy swap.

Lavrov mocked Britain's claim that there is no plausible alternative explanation for the poisoning. He says British intelligence agencies could have been involved and alleges the case helped distract public attention from the British government's difficult Brexit negotiations. </s> Senior Russian diplomatic and military officials have accused the UK of hiding and possibly planning to destroy evidence in the investigation into the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

The comments came during a remarkable briefing at Moscow’s foreign ministry given for all foreign ambassadors in Russia, to lay out the country’s argument for why it is not responsible for the attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, on 4 March.

Britain says they were poisoned with a nerve agent known as novichok and has blamed Russia for the attack, but Moscow has fiercely denied any involvement. The case has prompted the two countries to expel diplomats in a tit-for-tat dispute.

Speaking to a lecture hall of diplomats, Vladimir Yermakov, deputy head of the ministry’s department for non-proliferation, suggested that the UK was “hiding facts” about the case that may later “disappear”.



Laurie Bristow, the British ambassador to Russia, did not attend and the ambassadors of other major allies, including the US, Germany and France, also boycotted the briefing.

But one British diplomat did go. Emma Nottingham condemned the “disinformation” coming from the Russian government during the briefing, which was closed to the press but streamed live online.

Spy poisoning: police say investigation could last until summer Read more

“Russia has offered us so far no explanation of how this agent came to be used in the United Kingdom and no explanation as to why Russia has an undeclared chemical weapons programme in contravention of international law,” Nottingham told the five-person panel.

“We are not obliged to give anything to Great Britain,” Yermakov replied to Nottingham. “It is an attack on Russian citizens on the territory of Great Britain, so why don’t we carry out a joint investigation?”

Yermakov also suggested that Russia may not accept the conclusions of an investigation by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons as fact.

“It is not possible to evaluate what happened in Salisbury within the framework of the convention and within the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons,” he said in remarks translated by Interfax. “Deeper expert evaluations will be needed, and in any case we need to conduct our own investigations for Russia to be able to draw any conclusions.”

The briefing lasted just under two hours. </s> Russia's embassy in London yesterday accused Britain of "deliberately" withholding information on probes into the targeting of several Russians on its soil, as the war of words between the two countries continued

Russia's embassy based in London, accused Britain of 'deliberately' withholding information on the probes that targetted several Russians. The embassy said that it had asked the British Foriegn Office for 'detailed information' on the investigation of the March 12 murders in London of Nikolai Glushkov.

The death came a week after the nerve agent poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury. The embassy said in a statement,,"Given our numerous requests, the only thing we can suggest is that it is done deliberately."

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson wrote on Sunday that "no other government devotes as much time and effort to the business of trying to sabotage or discredit international inquiries" as Russia.

US repatriation for poisoned Russians

The former Russian double agent and his daughter, who are recovering from nerve agent poisoning, will be offered new identities and repatriated to the US with the help of the CIA, a media report has claimed. MI6 officials have had discussions with CIA about resettling them.

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The inputs from agencies have been sourced from a third party syndicated feed. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text </s> MOSCOW, April 1. /TASS/. The United Kingdom cannot make secret information on the Skripal case and London will bear responsibility for this provocation, Russian Ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko said in an interview with Itogi Nedeli (Weekly Results) program on NTV Television Channel on Sunday.

"I believe that this time, like in the case with [Alexander] Litvinenko, like in the case with [Badri] Patarkatsishvili, [Boris] Berezovsky, [Alexander] Perepilichny, [Nikolai] Glushkov, efforts will fail to make this information secret. I am sure that Russia won’t let Britons out of the legal field and the Britons will have to bear responsibility," the ambassador said.

Russia is currently "choosing the methods" and determining which way to follow, Yakovenko said.

According to the ambassador, there are "serious suspicions" that the provocation was staged by the British intelligence services.

"They are refusing to cooperate with us and are not giving us any facts. These realities naturally prompt us to conclude that this is a provocation made by the special services," the diplomat stressed.

Skripal case

Relations between Moscow and London have deteriorated sharply over the poisoning of former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, who was earlier sentenced in Russia for spying for the UK, and his daughter Yulia, who on March 4 were found unconscious on a bench near the Maltings shopping center in Salisbury. Police said they had been exposed to a nerve agent.

Later, London claimed that the toxin of Novichok-class had been allegedly developed in Russia. With that, the UK rushed to accuse Russia of being involved, while failing to produce any evidence. Moscow refuted the accusations that it had been involved in the incident and points out that neither the Soviet Union nor Russia has ever done research into that toxic chemical.

Without providing any proof, London expelled 23 Russian diplomats and suspended all planned high-level bilateral contacts. In response, Moscow expelled the equal number of UK diplomats. In addition, Britain’s consulate in St. Petersburg was ordered to be closed and the British Council’s operations in Russia were terminated. </s> Vladimir Yermakov, the Russian foreign ministry head of non-proliferation, held a “briefing” for foreign diplomats in Moscow during which he questioned whether the incident, which left former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter, Yulia, 33, fighting for their lives even involved a nerve agent. But his briefing was interrupted when British diplomat Emma Nottingham said there had been “a barrage of distortion and misinformation” as well as “an unlawful use of force against the United Kingdom.” Mr Yermakov fired back: “Get yourself out of your Russophobia and your island mentality. I feel ashamed for you.” The Russian Foreign Ministry event in Moscow was attended by dozens of foreign diplomats and broadcast on state TV.

But the two sides launched sharp allegations against each other over the nerve agent attack. The attack in Salisbury, England, has plunged ties between London and Moscow into their worst crisis since the Cold War. Britain has blamed Russia for the attack - something Moscow denies - and both have expelled diplomats in the standoff. Russia had organised Wednesday's event to explain its stance and lost little time in alleging that Britain itself had either directly or indirectly orchestrated the attack or had allowed "a terrorist attack" to take place on British soil.

Mr Yermakov added: “Nobody understands what happened in Salisbury. Let's investigate what really happened." However, Ms Nottingham said it was "highly likely" that Moscow stood behind the attempted assassination of the Skripals for four reasons: "The identification of the chemical agent by our world leading scientists, our knowledge that Russia has previously produced this agent ... Russia's record in conducting state-sponsored assassinations ... and our assessment that Russia views defectors as legitimate targets." Many ambassadors including those of Britain, France, Germany and the United States, stayed away from the Moscow event, sending more junior officials instead. US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated solidarity with Britain in a telephone call on Wednesday and "agreed on the need to take action to hold Russia accountable", the White House said. </s> MOSCOW: Russia on Friday accused Britain of trying to force its allies to take “confrontational steps” after EU member states decided to recall the bloc’s envoy from Moscow and mulled further diplomatic action over a nerve attack row.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov slammed Britain for garnering EU support over the poisoning of a former double agent, suggesting that London’s focus was now on making “the crisis with Russia as deep as possible”.

At a summit in Brussels, EU leaders united behind British Prime Minister Theresa May in blaming Russia for the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England, and agreed to recall their ambassador to Moscow for consultations.

EU states are now considering whether to follow Britain’s lead in expelling Russian diplomats and Latvia said Friday it would expel “one or several” Russian diplomats.“As for the decision taken, we regret in this context that again such decisions are taken using the wording ‘highly likely’,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“We don’t agree with this and we repeat again that Russia absolutely definitely has nothing to do with the Skripal case.”Russia’s top diplomat Lavrov for his part slammed Britain for “feverishly trying to force allies to take confrontational steps”.

“We still do not see any facts,” state news agency RIA Novosti quoted him as saying on a visit to Hanoi. “The absence of which makes one think that all of this is a provocation, the investigation has not even been finished yet.”

In a televised address, Putin thanked Russians for giving him the “highest level of support in the history of our country” in Sunday’s elections and urged the nation to come together amid the “difficult internal and external challenges we face.”

May had pressed the importance of a united response to the March 4 poisoning and the EU leaders in Brussels offered her their full support, agreeing in a statement “that it is highly likely that the Russian Federation is responsible and that there is no plausible alternative explanation”.

The Skripals are both in a coma after being found collapsed on a park bench, although a policeman who was also contaminated was released from hospital on Thursday. The Kremlin has angrily rejected Britain’s claims and Russian officials have offered numerous alternative explanations, including that London directed the attack itself or that Washington may have been involved.

Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats they said were spies, and Russia responded in kind, also halting the activities of the British Council cultural and educational organisation.Earlier Friday, British diplomats left their Moscow mission in several minibuses and the remaining diplomatic staff sent them off with a round of applause, Russian television showed. </s> MOSCOW (Reuters) - Britain’s ambassador to Moscow will skip a Russian Foreign Ministry briefing on the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain, an embassy spokesman said on Wednesday.

The Foreign Ministry has invited foreign ambassadors to attend a meeting with arms control experts later on Wednesday to discuss British allegations that Moscow was responsible for the poisoning in southern England, something Russia denies.

“The ambassador will not attend and we are considering whether to send a representative at working level,” the embassy spokesman said.

Speaking on a visit to Japan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier on Wednesday that Russia wanted Britain to tell it where Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were currently located.

Lavrov said Moscow also wanted to know why the British government had accused Russia of responsibility when the police investigation into the Salisbury incident was incomplete.

“Overall there is no doubt that the current British leadership has consciously taken a course to undermine Russian-British relations,” Lavrov said at a news conference with his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono in Tokyo.

“If this will continue in the form of any tangible new anti-Russian actions then of course nobody has cancelled the principle of reciprocity. It would be good for everyone and for (the British government) if they stopped getting agitated and calmed down.” </s> Russia has told the UK it must send home "just over 50" more of its diplomats in a tit-for-tat row following the nerve agent attack.

Russia has already retaliated against Britain for the UK's expulsion of Russian 'intelligence agents' by ejecting 23 British diplomats over the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury.

On Friday, the UK's ambassador to Moscow was told London had one month to cut its diplomatic contingent in Russia to the same size as the Russian mission in Britain.

On Saturday, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that meant Britain would have to cut "a little over 50" of its diplomats in Russia.

"We asked for parity. The Brits have 50 diplomats more than the Russians," she said.

It comes after Russia claimed UK authorities searched one of their planes at a London airport in what they called a "blatant provocation".

The Metropolitan Police denied the force had inspected an airbus that had landed at Heathrow having departed from Moscow.

It said: "We are aware of a story circulating on social media. Please be advised that Metropolitan Police are not conducting a search of an Airbus inbound from Moscow at Heathrow."

The Russian Embassy in the UK said in a statement: "Today, we have witnessed another blatant provocation by the British authorities.

"Border Force and Customs officers have searched the aircraft that was conducting the Aeroflot flights 2582 / 2583, Moscow - London - Moscow.

"This kind of event is extraordinary."

They also alleged British officials had tried to search the plane in the absence of the crew.

"After an Embassy officer arrived at the airport, long negotiations were conducted that allowed to ensure the right of the captain to take part in the search," they added.

"After the search was over, the British officers refused to provide any written document that would specify the reasons for their actions, their legal foundation and their outcome.

"Our attempts to get in touch with the Foreign Office in order to clarify the reasons of the inappropriate behaviour of British officials did not bring fruit. The Embassy has sent a diplomatic note demanding the British side to provide explanations of the incident.

"Of course, we will carefully analyse what has happened. At this moment, we have no other explanation but that the incident at Heathrow is in one way or another connected with the hostile policy that the UK government is conducting with regard to Russia."

The news comes as Russia continues to expel other foreign diplomats in a tit-for-tat response to countries across the world sending home Russian diplomats in solidarity with Britain following the nerve agent attack in Salisbury.

Russia faces mass expulsions of its diplomatic staff around the world, with more than 150 sent back from 25 countries, and NATO.

Ambassadors from a number of other nations, including Germany, Italy, Poland and France, were also summoned by Moscow's foreign ministry.

Ms Skripal is understood to be conscious and talking having been poisoned with novichok while visiting her father in Salisbury.

Police are treating the attack as attempted murder.

Mr Skripal, a former Russian spy, has been in a critical condition since 4 March. </s> London’s reluctance to share information on the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal has led Moscow to strongly suspect that it was the actual perpetrator of the crime, the Russian ambassador to Britain said.

The poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury triggered the worst diplomatic conflict between London and Moscow in years. The UK accused the Russian government of using a military grade nerve agent against the former spy and, according to Moscow, is stonewalling all attempts by Moscow to learn details of the ongoing investigation into the incident.

Moscow is increasingly convinced that Britain is the real culprit behind the attack, according to Russian Ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko.

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“We have very serious suspicion that this provocation was done by British intelligence,” Yakovenko told Russia’s NTV channel. He clarified that Russia has no direct proof of this suspicion, but the behavior of the British government constitutes strong circumstantial evidence in support of this theory.

The diplomat added that London had gained both short-term and long-term benefits from the poisoning. The short-term gain is that Theresa May’s government managed to spin this story to whip up support both at home and in Europe, while sidelining its failures to negotiate more favorable terms for exiting the European Union, Yakovenko said. The long-term benefit is that it improved London’s standing in the ongoing confrontation between the West and Russia.

“The Britons are claiming a leading role in the so-called containment of Russia. To win support from the people and the parliament for this containment of Russia, a serious provocation was required. And the Britons may have done a really savage one to get this support,” he said.

The ambassador said that details of British investigations into the deaths of several high-profile people with Russian ties have been kept from the public. These include former Russian intelligence officer Aleksandr Litvinenko, Georgian tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili, fugitive Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky and Russian whistleblower Aleksandr Perepilichny. He said he hoped there would be a public disclosure of relevant facts in relation to the Skripal case.

“I am sure Russia will not allow the Britons to escape the legal field. They will have to give answers,” he said.

Skripal case: How UK ‘explains’ why Russia is to blame in 1-minute VIDEO https://t.co/Dx0uqP0LrEpic.twitter.com/7UfX2gAwVr — RT (@RT_com) March 30, 2018

After the poisoning in Salisbury, the UK convinced some of its allies to follow its lead by expelling Russian diplomats. The US was the most receptive to the call, kicking 60 Russians out of the country, which dwarfed the UK’s expulsion of 23 people. European countries that chose to show solidarity with London expelled between one and four diplomats each. Ukraine expelled 13.

Russia hit back with reciprocal expulsions of foreign diplomats. It also demanded that Britain downsize its diplomatic mission in Russia to that of Russia in Britain, affecting over 50 jobs.

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Russia holds a briefing on the case for all foreign diplomats in Moscow, where it accuses the United Kingdom of "withholding evidence."