MOSCOW, March 14. /TASS/. Russia has fully destroyed all chemical weapon stocks without any exception, Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said on Wednesday.
"We have destroyed all the chemical weapons with no exception, which were created back at the time of the Soviet Union. And this work was completed in November 2017 by the official ceremony of destroying the last shell… That is why, we have no chemical weapons at all," Manturov said, replying to a question from reporters about whether Russia had stocks of Novichok nerve agent.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May earlier accused Russia of being involved in Skripal’s poisoning. The prime minister described the incident with Skripal as Russia’s "indiscriminate" and "reckless" attack against the UK. According to May, "Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia."
For his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on March 13 that Moscow has nothing to do with the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter. He also noted that Russia had received no requests from Britain on the substance allegedly used during the Salisbury incident.
On March 4, former Russian military intelligence (GRU) Colonel Sergey Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Julia suffered from the effects of a nerve agent. They were found unconscious on a bench near a shopping center in Salisbury. Both are currently in hospital in critical condition.
In 2004, Russia’s Federal Security Service (the FSB) arrested Skripal and, later on, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison for high treason. Six years later, the former colonel was handed over to the US as part of a swap deal involving espionage suspects. Later that same year, Skripal settled down in Britain.