OH, OKAY

Russia: Maybe U.K. Lab Is Source of Ex-Spy’s Nerve Agent Poisoning

U.K.’s foreign office says the latest explanation offered by a Russian ambassador is “nonsense.”

Russia’s ambassador to the European Union has suggested a British research laboratory is to blame for the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal. Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, Vladimir Chizhov reiterated Moscow’s claims that it had “nothing to do” with the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter, both of whom authorities say were attacked with a nerve agent produced by Russia. Chizhov claimed the U.K.’s Porton Down research lab is a more likely source of the poison. “Porton Down, as we now all know, is the largest military facility in the United Kingdom that has been dealing with chemical weapons research,” he told the BBC. He continued saying that “certain specialists” now living in Britain may have created the nerve agent, though he did not elaborate on the claim. “From the legal point of view the Russian state had nothing against” Skripal, Chizhov said. U.K.’s foreign office quickly dismissed his remarks, saying there is “not an ounce of truth” to the “nonsense”explanation.