THE HAGUE, July 10. /TASS/. The United Kingdom must clarify what kind of works are conducted at Porton Down laboratory and why poisonous agents are freely circulating in their country, Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Georgy Kalamanov said on Tuesday at the 88th session of the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

"Four months after the Salisbury incident, when Russian nationals Yulia and Sergei Skripal were poisoned, the situation around the investigation has not clarified at all," said Kalamanov, who leads the Russian delegation to the session. "The United Kingdom’s refusal to cooperate with Russia in a joint investigation, denial of access to our citizens for Russian diplomats in violation of all diplomatic and consular conventions, Great Britain’s never-stopping attempts to manipulate the OPCW findings only shatter trust to London’s loud statements."

"The investigation into the Salisbury incident is far from being over. As for the Amesbury incident, it has only started," he noted. "And again, like in the Skripla case, we hear only demands instead of concrete facts." As an example, he cited Britain’s interior ministry, Sajid Javid, who demanded Russia explain what had happened. "How can Russia explain what is happening in a faraway country, if the Brits can say nothing definite about it," Kalamanov noted.

"It’s high time for the British authorities to finally explain clearly what kind of works are conducted at Porton Down laboratory, a chemical weapons facility that manufactured the notorious toxic agent classed in Western countries as a new nerve agent of the Novichok type," he stressed. "The United Kingdom must tell the OPCW why poisonous agents are freely circulating in their country."

Dawn Sturgess, 44, and Charles Rowley, 45, were hospitalized in critical condition in the British town of Amesbury, Wiltshire County, on June 30. The Metropolitan Police claimed later that the two had been exposed to Novichok, the same nerve agent that was allegedly used in the March attack on former Russian military intelligence (GRU) Colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in neighboring Salisbury. Back then, London rushed to accuse Moscow of being behind the attack. Russia has been categorically denying its involvement ever since.

Sturgess died in hospital on July 8, while Rowley is still in critical condition.