Russian bid for joint investigation into Salisbury spy poisoning rejected by chemical weapons watchdog

Britain had called proposal 'perverse' and 'diversionary tactic'

Russia’s proposal of a joint investigation into the Salisbury nerve-agent attack has been voted down by members of the international chemical weapons watchdog.

The Kremlin complained it had been “pushed aside” after the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) rejected Moscow’s call to be included in a probe into the poisoning of the former spy Sergei Skripal.

Britain had called the Russian proposal “perverse” and “a diversionary tactic”.

Russia put forward the joint investigation as the UK did not invite it to participate in an investigation being carried out by the OPCW, the results of which are expected next week.

Moscow’s motion was defeated 15 votes to six, with 17 member states abstaining during an extraordinary session of the OPCW executive committee in The Hague on Wednesday.

Foreign secretary Boris Johnson welcomed the rejection of Russia's "ludicrous proposal", which he said was designed "to undermine the independent, impartial work of the international chemical weapons watchdog".

He added: “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.”

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

Russian officials said they had presented a “common sense” case at the meeting and pointed to “lies by Tony Blair” over Iraq as a reason to mistrust Britain.

Moscow’s envoy to the OPCW claimed Britain’s work with the watchdog over the poisoning had not been transparent.

Alexander Shulgin added: “Russia as well as other states that are members of the executive committee have been pushed aside from this investigation.

“They tell us that they can inform us of the results of this investigation... only with the good will of Great Britain.

“But, knowing how our so-called partners have conducted themselves, we are not going to count on their good will.”

The UK was backed during the meeting 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.”

China, Azerbaijan, Sudan, Algeria and Iran backed the Russian motion.

After failing to find support within the OPCW, Russia turned its attention to the UN Security Council, calling an emergency meeting on Thursday to discuss the Salisbury case.

The Kremlin denies any involvement in the 4 March attack which left Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia fighting for their lives. The UK insists Russia was behind the assassination attempt and says there is “no plausible alternative explanation”.

Moscow has seized upon the revelation that scientists at the Ministry of Defence’s research laboratory were unable to pinpoint “the precise source” of the Soviet-style novichok nerve agent used in the attack.

“Have you no shame, Theresa?” thundered headlines on the country’s main news network on Wednesday morning, calling on the British Prime Minister to resign unless she could prove Russia’s involvement.

Throughout the day, state news interspersed PMQ interventions by the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn with gleeful comments by Vladimir Putin, who was speaking about the attack for only the second time.

“The speed of the anti-Russian campaign has been bewildering,” said President Putin. “Scotland Yard had declared they needed no less than two months for a full investigation.”

Few Russian media outlets reported the full comments of the chief executive of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down, who said the novichok was created with “extremely sophisticated methods... only in the capabilities of a state actor.

“We have not identified the precise source, but we have provided the scientific info to the government who have then used a number of other sources to piece together the conclusions,” added Gary Aitkenhead.

The UK government said the work of Porton Down scientists was “only one part of the intelligence picture”.

But Mr Aitkenhead’s comments were exploited by some and placed Britain under pressure to reveal more details of its intelligence on the Salisbury poisoning. Labour’s shadow home secretary Diane Abbott accused Mr Johnson of misleading the public when he said Porton Down scientists had confirmed the source of the novichok.

The government has stood by its conclusions on the nerve agent’s origin, but the Foreign Office on Wednesday deleted a tweet from last month saying Porton Down scientists had identified the substance as “made in Russia”.

The head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin claimed the Skripal case was a “grotesque provocation” by American and British spy agencies. He went on to compare the current confrontation to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the nearest the Soviet Union and the US came to nuclear war.

“We need to stop raising stakes irresponsibly, and projecting power on to interstate relations to avoid a new crisis,” he said.

Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, requested an emergency meeting on the Security Council during a session on chemical weapons in Syria on Wednesday.

He said Moscow shared the principle that use of chemical weapons anywhere “is not acceptable and must be investigated and perpetrators punished, and that impunity is unacceptable.”