Russia: No knowledge of nerve agent quantity in attack

MOSCOW

Moscow has no information about the quantity of nerve agent Novichok used in the attack in Salisbury, England this March, a Russian presidential spokesperson said on Friday.

Britain has refused Russia’s offer to assist in the investigation of the poisoning of ex-spy Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia, and is not sharing its findings from the course of the probe, said Dmitry Peskov.

On March 4, former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia were admitted to hospital after being found unconscious in Salisbury, poisoned by Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia, according to British authorities.

Skripal and his daughter were released after months of treatment, and a police officer involved in the case also had to undergo treatment.

Russian military officers Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, the two main suspects in the poisoning, smuggled in the nerve agent in a perfume bottle, British police said in September.

After the men denied any role in the poisoning in an interview with Russian state TV, the British government denounced Russia’s “obfuscation and lies" in the case.