The world's chemical weapons watchdog said it would hold a meeting at Russia's request Wednesday to discuss Britain's allegations that Moscow was behind the poisoning of an ex-spy in England.

"The chairperson of the Executive Council... has received a request by the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation... to convene a meeting of the Executive Council," the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said Tuesday on its website.

It said the meeting behind closed doors will start at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) at the OPCW's headquarters in The Hague.

Britain has said it is "highly likely" that Moscow was responsible for an attempt to poison former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the quiet English city of Salisbury on March 4.

London has accused Russia of using the Novichok nerve agent, developed in the latter days of the Soviet Union. Moscow has angrily denied any involvement.

In a letter dated last Thursday, Russia's ambassador to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin asked for the meeting to discuss the British allegations "in a confidential sitting".

After the poisoning, Britain announced it would expel 23 Russian diplomats, the first in a series of moves in diplomatic retaliation against Moscow by western countries.

Britain suspended high-level diplomatic contact with Moscow and said it would not send any members of its royal family to the football World Cup Russia is hosting in June.

In response Russia expelled 23 British diplomats, closed a British consulate in Saint Petersburg and halted the activities of the British Council educational and cultural organisation. </s> THE HAGUE – Russia’s call for a joint inquiry to be held into the poisoning of a former Russian double agent in England failed on Wednesday when it was outvoted 15-6 at a meeting of the global chemical weapons watchdog.

Russia had called an emergency meeting of the decision-making executive of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to counter accusations by Britain that it was behind the 4 March nerve agent poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England.

UK’s security services believe they have pinpointed the location of Russian laboratory that manufactured the nerve agent Novichok used in Salisbury attack, The Times reported on Wednesday. Britain was aware of the existence of the site before 4 March, the report said.

It cited an unidentified security source as saying they have a “high degree of confidence in the location”.

Britain’s charges of Russian involvement, strongly denied by Moscow, have triggered mass expulsions of diplomats by both Britain’s allies in the West, including the United States, and similar retaliatory action by Russia.

When the meeting convened on Wednesday, Russia proposed a joint investigation into the poisoning as it was not invited to participate in an independent probe being carried out by the OPCW at Britain’s request, results of which are due next week.

Britain called the Russian proposal for a joint investigation a “perverse” attempt to escape blame for the poisoning of the Skripals, and part of a disinformation campaign mounted by Moscow.

Russia’s proposal in the end drew support from China, Azerbaijan, Sudan, Algeria and Iran, a source told Reuters, with US and European members voting against the plan. There were 17 abstentions among members of the organisation’s 41-member council, only 38 of whose members were present and eligible to vote on Wednesday.

Russia’s ambassador to the OPCW, Aleksander Shulgin, confirmed that the vote had been lost.

Separately on Wednesday, Russia requested a public meeting of the United Nations Security Council on 5 April to discuss the British accusations against Moscow, Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said.

“Russia has had one goal in mind since the attempted murders on UK soil through the use of a military-grade chemical weapon - to obscure the truth and confuse the public,” he said in a statement.

“The international community has yet again seen through these tactics and robustly defeated Russia’s attempts today to derail the proper international process.”

The closed-door OPCW meeting itself triggered sharp verbal exchanges between the Britain and Russia’s representatives.

In a tweet, the British delegation called Moscow’s idea for a joint investigation “a diversionary tactic, and yet more disinformation designed to evade the questions the Russians authorities must answer”.

John Foggo, Britain’s acting envoy, said Russian assertions that the attack may have been carried out by Britain, the United States or Sweden were “shameless, preposterous statements”.

Shulgin, at a news conference, said the vote showed more than half of the OPCW’s members had “refused to associate themselves with the West’s point of view” - referring to those who voted in favour of Russia’s proposal or abstained.

He repeated that Russia had had nothing to do with the attack on the Skripals, which he said looked like “a terrorist attack.”

Britain’s remarks were “a dirty flow of complete lies ... outright Russia-phobia,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday the OPCW should draw a line under a case that has triggered the worst crisis in East-West relations since the Cold War.

Scientists at the Porton Down biological and chemical weapons laboratory in England have concluded that the toxin was among a category of Soviet-era nerve agents called Novichok, though could not yet determine whether it was made in Russia.

The OPCW, which oversees the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, has taken samples from the site of the Salisbury attack and is expected to provide results from testing at two designated laboratories next week.

Shulgin said earlier that if Moscow was prevented from taking part in the testing of the Salisbury toxin samples, it would reject the outcome of the OPCW research.

Russia’s request to open a parallel, joint Russian-British inquiry has been portrayed by Western powers as an attempt to undermine the investigation by OPCW scientists.

The EU said it was very concerned Moscow was considering rejecting the OPCW findings.

Instead of cooperating with the OPCW, Russia had unleashed “a flood of insinuations targeting EU member states ... This is completely unacceptable,” an EU statement read to the council session said.

Skripal, 66, a former Russian military intelligence officer who betrayed scores of Russian agents to Britain and was exchanged in a Russia-West spy swap, remains in a critical but stable condition. His daughter, Yulia, 33, has shown signs of improvement </s> THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Russia’s call for a joint inquiry to be held into the poisoning of a former Russian double agent in England failed on Wednesday when it was outvoted 15-6 at a meeting of the global chemical weapons watchdog.

Russia had called an emergency meeting of the decision-making executive of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to counter accusations by Britain that it was behind the March 4 nerve agent poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England.

Britain’s charges of Russian involvement, strongly denied by Moscow, have triggered mass expulsions of diplomats by both Britain’s allies in the West, including the United States, and similar retaliatory action by Russia.

When the meeting convened on Wednesday, Russia proposed a joint investigation into the poisoning as it was not invited to participate in an independent probe being carried out by the OPCW at Britain’s request, results of which are due next week.

Britain called the Russian proposal for a joint investigation a “perverse” attempt to escape blame for the poisoning of the Skripals, and part of a disinformation campaign mounted by Moscow.

Russia’s proposal in the end drew support from China, Azerbaijan, Sudan, Algeria and Iran, a source told Reuters, with U.S. and European members voting against the plan. There were 17 abstentions among members of the organisation’s 41-member council, only 38 of whose members were present and eligible to vote on Wednesday.

Russia’s ambassador to the OPCW, Aleksander Shulgin, confirmed that the vote had been lost.

Separately on Wednesday Russia requested a public meeting of the United Nations Security Council on April 5 to discuss the British accusations against Moscow, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said.

“Russia has had one goal in mind since the attempted murders on UK soil through the use of a military-grade chemical weapon — to obscure the truth and confuse the public,” he said in a statement.

“The international community has yet again seen through these tactics and robustly defeated Russia’s attempts today to derail the proper international process.”

The closed-door OPCW meeting itself triggered sharp verbal exchanges between the Britain and Russia’s representatives.

In a tweet, the British delegation called Moscow’s idea for a joint investigation “a diversionary tactic, and yet more disinformation designed to evade the questions the Russians authorities must answer”.

John Foggo, Britain’s acting envoy, said Russian assertions that the attack may have been carried out by Britain, the United States or Sweden were “shameless, preposterous statements...

Shulgin, at a news conference, said the vote showed more than half of the OPCW’s members had “refused to associate themselves with the West’s point of view” — referring to those who voted in favour of Russia’s proposal or abstained.

He repeated that Russia had had nothing to do with the attack on the Skripals, which he said looked like “a terrorist attack.”

Britain’s remarks were “a dirty flow of complete lies ... outright Russia-phobia,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday the OPCW should draw a line under a case that has triggered the worst crisis in East-West relations since the Cold War.

Scientists at the Porton Down biological and chemical weapons laboratory in England have concluded that the toxin was among a category of Soviet-era nerve agents called Novichok, though could not yet determine whether it was made in Russia.

The OPCW, which oversees the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, has taken samples from the site of the Salisbury attack and is expected to provide results from testing at two designated laboratories next week.

Shulgin said earlier that if Moscow was prevented from taking part in the testing of the Salisbury toxin samples, it would reject the outcome of the OPCW research.

Russia’s request to open a parallel, joint Russian-British inquiry has been portrayed by Western powers as an attempt to undermine the investigation by OPCW scientists.

The EU said it was very concerned Moscow was considering rejecting the OPCW findings.

Instead of cooperating with the OPCW, Russia had unleashed “a flood of insinuations targeting EU member states ... This is completely unacceptable,” an EU statement read to the council session said.

Skripal, 66, a former Russian military intelligence officer who betrayed scores of Russian agents to Britain and was exchanged in a Russia-West spy swap, remains in a critical but stable condition. His daughter, Yulia, 33, has shown signs of improvement. </s> Russia has called for the United Nations Security Council to meet on Thursday to discuss the Salisbury attack after it lost a bid to stage a joint investigation with the UK into the poisoning.

Boris Johnson has attacked Moscow for trying to “obscure the truth and confuse the public” about the nerve-agent assault on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Russia called a meeting of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague on Wednesday to insist its experts must be involved in the testing programme and probe.

But it lost the vote after Britain told the extraordinary meeting the demand was a sign the federation was “nervous” of what the inquiries will find.

Moscow has asked for an open session of the UN Security Council to be held on Thursday at 8pm UK time.

UK security services have high degree of confidence that they have pinpointed the location of the Russian laboratory that manufactured the nerve agent used in the attack, according to The Times.

A Whitehall source told the newspaper: “We knew pretty much by the time of the first Cobra (the emergency co-ordination briefing that took place the same week) that it was overwhelmingly likely to come from Russia.”

The Foreign Secretary, who has faced claims he exaggerated the evidence against Moscow, said countries around the world “continue to share our assessment” about the nerve-agent attack.

He said: “Russia has had one goal in mind since the attempted murders on UK soil through the use of a military-grade chemical weapon – to obscure the truth and confuse the public.

“The international community has yet again seen through these tactics and robustly defeated Russia’s attempts today to derail the proper international process.”

In a vote at OPCW, six of the 41 members backed Russia while 15 voted against, 17 abstained, two were absent, and one was not entitled to vote.

Nick Heath, deputy British ambassador to The Hague, said Russia had failed again in its attempts to “frustrate the process of justice”.

Russian officials speaking after the meeting concluded said they had presented a “common sense” case and pointed to the “lies by Tony Blair” over Iraq as they criticised the intelligence about the attack.

Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russian news agency Tass said there is “no trust in Great Britain, it is impossible to trust London” after its continuous “misconduct” and the unacceptable rhetoric against Russia.

Tension between Moscow and London has risen a notch after the head of the Porton Down military research facility said scientists had not verified Russia as the source of the substance used in the attack on the Skripals.

Vladimir Putin seized on the comments from the chief executive of the Government’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), Gary Aitkenhead, as he accused the UK of launching an “anti-Russian campaign”.

Mr Johnson attacked Jeremy Corbyn for “playing Russia’s game” after the Labour leader accused him of “exaggeration” over the evidence.

Former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind said he did not think “any harm” has been done by Mr Johnson’s comments.

He told BBC Two’s Newsnight: “We are all familiar that Boris has a looser use of language. This is not the first time that’s happened.” </s> Moscow’s call for a joint UK/Russian investigation into the Salisbury poisoning has been dismissed as “perverse” by Britain’s delegation to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The move came as the OPCW’s executive council met in The Hague to discuss the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal at the request of Russia.

The Russian initiative was described by the Foreign Office as a “diversionary tactic” designed to undermine the OPCW’s work in analysing samples of the substance identified by the UK as a Novichok nerve agent.

Tension between Moscow and London has risen a notch after the head of the Porton Down military research facility said scientists had not verified Russia as the source of the substance.

Vladimir Putin seized on the comments from the chief executive of the Government’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), Gary Aitkenhead, as he accused the UK of launching an “anti-Russian campaign”.

And Labour’s Diane Abbott suggested the Government had rushed to blame the Russian president.

Russia has flatly denied UK claims that it was to blame for the March 4 attack, with foreign intelligence service director Sergei Naryshkin even claiming it was staged by the UK and US as a “provocation”.

Mr Naryshkin told a global security conference in Moscow: “Even as far as the Skripal case goes – which is a grotesque provocation rudely staged by the British and US intelligence agencies – some European countries are in no hurry to follow London and Washington, preferring to sort the situation out.”

Moscow continues to demand that Britain hands over samples of the substance so it can carry out its own checks.

But the UK OPCW delegation said in a tweet: “Russia’s proposal for a joint UK/Russian investigation into the Salisbury incident is perverse. It is a diversionary tactic, and yet more disinformation designed to evade the questions the Russian authorities must answer.”

And a Foreign Office spokesman said there was “no requirement in the chemical weapons convention for the victim of a chemical weapons attack to engage in a joint investigation with the likely perpetrator”.

The spokesman described Wednesday’s meeting in The Hague as “yet another diversionary tactic, intended to undermine the work of the OPCW in reaching a conclusion”.

He said: “Russia has called this meeting to undermine the work of the OPCW which, fully in accordance with the chemical weapons convention, is providing the UK with technical assistance and evaluation through independent analysis of samples from the Salisbury attack.”

Mr Aitkenhead said on Tuesday that Porton Down had identified the substance used in Salisbury as a military-grade Novichok nerve agent which could probably be deployed only by a nation-state.

But he told Sky News it was not the role of his lab to work out where the agent came from and said the Government’s conclusion that it was highly likely to be Russian was based on “a number of other sources”.

His comments appeared to contradict the answer given by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson when asked on German TV on March 20 why the UK believed the source of the nerve agent was Russia.

“The people from Porton Down, the laboratory, they were absolutely categorical,” Mr Johnson said. “I asked them that myself. I said ‘Are you sure?’ He said ‘There’s no doubt’.”

And on March 22, the Foreign Office issued a tweet saying: “Analysis by world-leading experts at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down made clear that this was a military-grade Novichok nerve agent produced in Russia.”

Ms Abbott said the development raised questions about the Government’s approach, and said Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn should now be given credit for demanding more evidence before allocating blame.

“It doesn’t surprise me Porton Down is saying this because the security services were always very cautious in what they said,” the shadow home secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“What surprised me was that so many were willing to rush into the media and say it was unequivocally Putin. That’s not necessarily what we were told.”

Ms Abbott acknowledged that Prime Minister Theresa May had been “quite careful” in her language, but added: “Boris Johnson apparently going on international media and saying he was 101% certain it was Putin – I don’t understand where he got that information from.”

During a visit to Turkey, Mr Putin called for a thorough investigation into the poisoningy, saying “the speed at which the anti-Russian campaign has been launched causes bewilderment”.

Following Mr Aitkenhead’s comments, a Government spokesman said ministers had always been clear that the identification of the substance as Novichok by the Porton Down experts was “only one part of the intelligence picture” leading to the assessment that Russian state involvement was the only plausible explanation for the attack.

But Russia’s EU ambassador, Vladimir Chizhov, insisted that the nerve agent “could have been manufactured anywhere”.

Russian news agency Tass quoted Mr Chizhov as saying he was “not surprised” by Mr Aitkenhead’s comments, as Novichok “is widely known – its formula is even available on the internet”. </s> Russia has failed in its "ludicrous" bid for a joint UK/Russian investigation into the Salisbury attack, Boris Johnson has said.

Moscow called a meeting of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague to insist its experts must be involved in the testing programme and probe.

But it lost the vote after Britain told the extraordinary meeting the demand was a sign Moscow was "nervous" of what the inquiries will find.

Mr Johnson said Russia's goal was to "obscure the truth and confuse the public".

The Foreign Secretary, who has faced claims he has exaggerated the evidence against Moscow, said countries around the world "continue to share our assessment" about the nerve-agent attack.

He said: "The purpose of Russia's ludicrous proposal at The Hague was clear - to undermine the independent, impartial work of the international chemical weapons watchdog.

"Russia has had one goal in mind since the attempted murders on UK soil through the use of a military-grade chemical weapon - to obscure the truth and confuse the public.

"The international community has yet again seen through these tactics and robustly defeated Russia's attempts today to derail the proper international process.

"It shows that many countries around the world continue to share our assessment of what happened in Salisbury and are determined to stand up to Russia's behaviour."

In a vote at OPCW, six of the 41 members backed Russia while 15 voted against, 17 abstained, two were absent, and one was not entitled to vote.

Nick Heath, deputy British ambassador to The Hague, said Russia had failed again in its attempts to "frustrate the process of justice".

Russian officials speaking after the meeting concluded said they had presented a "common sense" case and pointed to the "lies by Tony Blair" over Iraq as they criticised the intelligence about the attack.

Moscow has called for an emergency session of the UN Security Council on Thursday to discuss the case.

Only six of the 41 OPCW members voted in favour of the Russian draft decision proposing the joint UK/Russian investigation. 15 voted against, including the UK, 17 abstained, 2 were absent, and one was not entitled to vote.

UK ambassador John Foggo accused Russia of showing "disdain" for the independence of the international body, which is conducting tests on samples of the nerve agent used in the March 4 attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

He told the meeting: "The work of the Technical Secretariat must remain impartial.

"Russia's refusal to accept the results of the OPCW's investigation unless Russian experts participate in it suggests that Russia is opposed to the independence and impartiality of the Technical Secretariat and is nervous about what the results will show."

Mr Foggo said that Russia's statements displayed a "wilful ignorance" of the Chemical Weapons Convention and "disdain for the independence and competence" of the OPCW's Technical Secretariat.

The UK was backed by the European Union, which reaffirmed its support for Britain's demand for answers from Russia on how the Novichok agent which it developed came to be used in Salisbury.

Speaking on behalf of the EU, Bulgarian ambassador Krassimir Kostov said: "We have full confidence in the UK investigation and laud UK's collaboration with the OPCW Technical Secretariat, in full compliance with the convention."

Tension between Moscow and London has risen a notch after the head of the Porton Down military research facility said scientists had not verified Russia as the source of the substance used in the attack on the Skripals.

Vladimir Putin seized on the comments from the chief executive of the Government's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), Gary Aitkenhead, as he accused the UK of launching an "anti-Russian campaign".

Russia has flatly denied UK claims that it was to blame for the March 4 attack, with foreign intelligence service director Sergei Naryshkin even claiming it was staged by the UK and US as a "provocation".

Mr Naryshkin told a global security conference in Moscow: "Even as far as the Skripal case goes - which is a grotesque provocation rudely staged by the British and US intelligence agencies - some European countries are in no hurry to follow London and Washington, preferring to sort the situation out." </s> THE HAGUE, April 4 (Reuters) - Russia's call for a joint inquiry to be held into the poisoning of a former Russian double agent in England failed on Wednesday when it was outvoted 15-6 at a meeting of the global chemical weapons watchdog.

Russia had called an emergency meeting of the decision-making executive of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to counter accusations by Britain that it was behind the March 4 nerve agent poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England.

Britain's charges of Russian involvement, strongly denied by Moscow, have triggered mass expulsions of diplomats by both Britain's allies in the West, including the United States, and similar retaliatory action by Russia.

When the meeting convened on Wednesday, Russia proposed a joint investigation into the poisoning as it was not invited to participate in an independent probe being carried out by the OPCW at Britain's request, results of which are due next week.

Britain called the Russian proposal for a joint investigation a "perverse" attempt to escape blame for the poisoning of the Skripals, and part of a disinformation campaign mounted by Moscow.

Russia's proposal in the end drew support from China, Azerbaijan, Sudan, Algeria and Iran, a source told Reuters, with U.S. and European members voting against the plan. There were 17 abstentions among members of the organisation's 41-member council, only 38 of whose members were present and eligible to vote on Wednesday.

Russia's ambassador to the OPCW, Aleksander Shulgin, confirmed that the vote had been lost.

Separately on Wednesday Russia requested a public meeting of the United Nations Security Council on April 5 to discuss the British accusations against Moscow, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said.

"Russia has had one goal in mind since the attempted murders on UK soil through the use of a military-grade chemical weapon -- to obscure the truth and confuse the public," he said in a statement.

"The international community has yet again seen through these tactics and robustly defeated Russia´s attempts today to derail the proper international process."

The closed-door OPCW meeting itself triggered sharp verbal exchanges between the Britain and Russia's representatives.

In a tweet, the British delegation called Moscow's idea for a joint investigation "a diversionary tactic, and yet more disinformation designed to evade the questions the Russians authorities must answer".

John Foggo, Britain's acting envoy, said Russian assertions that the attack may have been carried out by Britain, the United States or Sweden were "shameless, preposterous statements...

Shulgin, at a news conference, said the vote showed more than half of the OPCW's members had "refused to associate themselves with the West's point of view" -- referring to those who voted in favour of Russia's proposal or abstained.

He repeated that Russia had had nothing to do with the attack on the Skripals, which he said looked like "a terrorist attack."

Britain's remarks were "a dirty flow of complete lies ... outright Russia-phobia," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday the OPCW should draw a line under a case that has triggered the worst crisis in East-West relations since the Cold War.

Scientists at the Porton Down biological and chemical weapons laboratory in England have concluded that the toxin was among a category of Soviet-era nerve agents called Novichok, though could not yet determine whether it was made in Russia.

The OPCW, which oversees the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, has taken samples from the site of the Salisbury attack and is expected to provide results from testing at two designated laboratories next week.

Shulgin said earlier that if Moscow was prevented from taking part in the testing of the Salisbury toxin samples, it would reject the outcome of the OPCW research.

Russia's request to open a parallel, joint Russian-British inquiry has been portrayed by Western powers as an attempt to undermine the investigation by OPCW scientists.

The EU said it was very concerned Moscow was considering rejecting the OPCW findings.

Instead of cooperating with the OPCW, Russia had unleashed "a flood of insinuations targeting EU member states ... This is completely unacceptable," an EU statement read to the council session said.

Skripal, 66, a former Russian military intelligence officer who betrayed scores of Russian agents to Britain and was exchanged in a Russia-West spy swap, remains in a critical but stable condition. His daughter, Yulia, 33, has shown signs of improvement. (Additional reporting by Toby Sterling in Amsterdam and William Schomberg in London; Editing by Richard Balmforth) </s> British Police Community Support Officers stand on duty outside a residential property in Salisbury, southern England, on March 6, 2018. — Reuters picTHE HAGUE, April 4 — The world’s chemical watchdog is to meet behind closed doors today, after a British laboratory said it had not proved that Russia manufactured a deadly nerve agent used to poison a former Russian spy.

The talks at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have been requested by Moscow which said it wanted to “address the situation around the allegations... in regards to the incident in Salisbury.”

“We hope to discuss the whole matter and call on Britain to provide every possible element of evidence they might have in their hands,” Russia’s ambassador to Ireland, Yury Filatov, told reporters.

Yesterday, the British military facility analysing the nerve agent used on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, said it was not in a position to say where the substance had originated.

Skripal, who has lived in Britain since a spy swap in 2010, and his daughter have been in hospital since the March 4 poisoning that London and its major Western allies have blamed on Russia.

The 41 member states of the OPCW’s executive council are to convene at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) at the organisation’s headquarters in The Hague.

The meeting comes after Moscow also received and analysed samples of the Novichok agent used in the attack.

“Russia is interested in establishing the whole truth of the matter,” Filatov said.

But Britain’s foreign ministry accused Russia of requesting the meeting to undermine the OPCW’s investigation.

“This Russian initiative is yet again another diversionary tactic, intended to undermine the work of the OPCW in reaching a conclusion,” the ministry said in a statement.

“Of course, there is no requirement in the Chemical Weapons Convention for the victim of a chemical weapons attack to engage in a joint investigation with the likely perpetrator,” it said.

Gary Aitkenhead, chief executive of the Porton Down defence laboratory, told Britain’s Sky News that analysts had identified the substance as military-grade Novichok, the word used for a category of nerve agents developed in Soviet times.

But he added: “We have not identified the precise source.”

“It is our job to provide the scientific evidence of what this particular nerve agent is, we identified that it is from this particular family and that it is a military grade, but it is not our job to say where it was manufactured,” Aitkenhead said.

“Extremely sophisticated methods” were needed to create the nerve agent, he said, adding that was “something only in the capabilities of a state actor”

Following his remarks, a British government spokesperson said Porton Down’s identification of Novichok was “only one part of the intelligence picture”.

“This includes our knowledge that within the last decade, Russia has investigated ways of delivering nerve agents probably for assassination –- and as part of this programme has produced and stockpiled small quantities of Novichok; Russia’s record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations; and our assessment that Russia views former intelligence officers as targets,” it added.

The first use of chemical weapons in Europe since World War II has chilled Moscow’s relations with the West, as both sides have expelled scores of diplomats.

Britain has also suspended high-level diplomatic contact with Moscow.

Moscow has denied any involvement in the incident, with Russian President Vladimir Putin saying late Tuesday he hoped the OPCW meeting would put a “full stop” to the issue.

Putin added he had been informed that the British military could not prove the substance was made in Russia.

An “anti-Russian campaign” had been started with surprising speed, Putin said, reiterating Moscow’s claim that it should be allowed to take part in the investigation. — AFP </s> Russia’s has failed in a “ludicrous” bid for a joint inquiry into the Salisbury attack at a meeting of the global weapons watchdog.

Russia called an emergency meeting of the decision-making executive of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to counter accusations it was behind the nerve agent poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

But it was outvoted by 15-6 in a vote in the Hague.

Boris Johnson branded the bid “ludicrous” and said Russia’s goal was to “obscure the truth and confuse the public.”

The Foreign Secretary, who is under pressure for wrongly claiming Porton Down scientists had pointed the finger at Russia for the attack, said countries around the world "continue to share our assessment" of the incident.

He said: "The purpose of Russia's ludicrous proposal at The Hague was clear - to undermine the independent, impartial work of the international chemical weapons watchdog.

"Russia has had one goal in mind since the attempted murders on UK soil through the use of a military-grade chemical weapon - to obscure the truth and confuse the public.

"The international community has yet again seen through these tactics and robustly defeated Russia's attempts today to derail the proper international process.

"It shows that many countries around the world continue to share our assessment of what happened in Salisbury and are determined to stand up to Russia's behaviour."

In a vote at OPCW, six of the 41 members backed Russia while 15 voted against, 17 abstained, two were absent, and one was not entitled to vote.

Nick Heath, deputy British ambassador to The Hague, said Russia had failed again in its attempts to "frustrate the process of justice".

Russian officials speaking after the meeting concluded said they had presented a "common sense" case and pointed to the "lies by Tony Blair " over Iraq as they criticised the intelligence about the attack.

Moscow has called for an emergency session of the UN Security Council on Thursday to discuss the case.

Only six of the 41 OPCW members voted in favour of the Russian draft decision proposing the joint UK/Russian investigation. 15 voted against, including the UK, 17 abstained, 2 were absent, and one was not entitled to vote.

UK ambassador John Foggo accused Russia of showing "disdain" for the independence of the international body, which is conducting tests on samples of the nerve agent used in the March 4 attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

He told the meeting: "The work of the Technical Secretariat must remain impartial.

"Russia's refusal to accept the results of the OPCW's investigation unless Russian experts participate in it suggests that Russia is opposed to the independence and impartiality of the Technical Secretariat and is nervous about what the results will show."

Russia has flatly denied UK claims that it was to blame for the March 4 attack, with foreign intelligence service director Sergei Naryshkin even claiming it was staged by the UK and US as a "provocation".
Russia requests for the United Kingdom to release "every possible element of evidence" proving Russian involvement and requests the Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to call a special session tomorrow.