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Sunday, March 18, 2018, 18:42
Russian diplomat hints UK lab could be nerve agent source
By Associated Press
Sunday, March 18, 2018, 18:42 By Associated Press

People walk past the British Consulate General, in St. Petersburg, Russia, March 17, 2018. Russia on Saturday announced it is expelling 23 British diplomats and threatened further measures in retaliation in a growing diplomatic dispute over a nerve agent attack on a former spy in Britain. (DMITRI LOVETSKY / AP)

LONDON — Russia's ambassador to the European Union has suggested a nerve agent that poisoned a former spy in England could have come from a British lab.

Vladimir Chizhov says Russia has no chemical weapons stockpiles and was not behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

READ MORE: Britain to expel 23 Russian diplomats over spy poisoning row

In comments broadcast Sunday, Chizhov told the BBC that the UK chemical weapons research facility, Porton Down, is only 12 kilometers from Salisbury, where the Skripals were found earlier this month.

Asked whether he was saying Porton Down was responsible, he replied: "I don't know."

The British government says Chizhov's suggestion is "nonsense."

ALSO READ: UK lawmaker says spy poisoning looks to be 'state-sponsored'

In this image dated March 9, 2018 and issued on March 10, 2018 by Britain's Ministry of Defense, troops in protective gear are seen as they work to remove a contaminated police car from the Accident and Emergency entrance at the District Hospital in Salisbury, England. (PETE BROWN/MOD VIA AP)

Meanwhile, Russia's ambassador in London, Alexander Yakovenko, called for "cooler heads." He told the Mail on Sunday that the dispute is "escalating dangerously and out of proportion."


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