MOSCOW, November 2. /TASS/. Moscow is unaware of the United Kingdom handing any new information on the Salisbury incident involving former Russian military intelligence (GRU) Colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia over to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Russian Permanent Representative to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin said at an online briefing.
"We are not aware of any new developments," he said, replying to a question. "However, I would like to point out that the British envoy never misses a chance to raise the Salisbury and Amesbury incidents, as well as the case of a certain Russian blogger, at meetings of the OPCW’s governing bodies. We object and note that the United Kingdom remains reluctant to fulfill our request based on Article 9 [of the Chemical Weapons Convention] or respond to our embassy's notes," Shulgin added.
According to him, Moscow has so far sent over 80 diplomatic communication notes to London but has not received a substantive response to any of them. Shulgin emphasized that the same went for a recent request to the UK concerning the case of Russian blogger Alexey Navalny. The envoy slammed the United Kingdom's reaction as "a pseudo response."
According to London, former Russian military intelligence (GRU) Colonel Sergei Skripal, who had been convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain and later swapped for Russian intelligence officers, and his daughter Yulia suffered the effects of an alleged nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury on March 4, 2018. Claiming that the substance used in the attack had been a Novichok-class nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union, London rushed to accuse Russia of being involved in the incident. Moscow rejected all of the United Kingdom’s accusations. Chief Executive of the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down Gary Aitkenhead said later that British experts had been unable to identify the origin of the substance allegedly used in the attack on the Skripals. In October, the European Union moved to extend sanctions on those whom it deems responsible for the proliferation and use of chemical weapons for a year. Those sanctioned particularly include Russian nationals Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov whom British intelligence agencies consider to be "GRU agents.".