Investigators have said that the nerve agent Novichok was used to attack former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia last month at his home in Salisbury, the British town he settled in after a prison sentence for selling Moscow’s secrets. Russia called a meeting of the global chemical watchdog on Wednesday, April 4, over the Salisbury incident, but failed in its bid to join the probe by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Vassily Nebenzia said Russia was requesting a meeting Thursday at 1900 GMT over the British government's implication of Moscow in the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Russian officials speaking after the meeting concluded said they had presented a “common sense” case and pointed to the “lies by Tony Blair” over Iraq as they criticised the intelligence about the attack. “The international community has yet again seen through these tactics and robustly defeated Russia’s attempts today to derail the proper international process.”

In a vote at OPCW, six of the 41 members backed Russia while 15 voted against, 17 abstained, two were absent, and one was not entitled to vote. “The purpose of Russia’s ludicrous proposal at The Hague was clear -- to undermine the independent, impartial work of the international chemical weapons watchdog,” he said, adding that Moscow’s main goal was “to obscure the truth and confuse the public.”

Britain is carrying out its own probe, with independent technical assistance from OPCW experts. He said: “There’s no missing nerve agent that no-one can find – it was used in Salisbury, we had three people seriously ill, two obviously remain in hospital in critical condition, and there is no doubt that we have found nerve agent.” “That nerve agent has been identified to being manufactured we believe in Russia and we believe that the nerve agent, the Novichok type of nerve agent, is only capable of being produced by a nation state, and then we add that to intelligence we hold, we add that to some of the police investigation that’s going on right now, and we can say that roads lead to Russia, that we are beyond reasonable doubt of the view that the Russian state is behind this.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has also raised the subject of the “flawed intelligence and dodgy dossiers” behind the Iraq invasion in his response to the Skripal case.
Vasily Nebenzia, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, tells the UN Security Council the United Kingdom has created a "fake story" and says Russia has "told our British colleagues that you are playing with fire and you will be sorry." UK representative to UN Karen Pierce tells the Security Council UK actions "stand up to any scrutiny" and compares Russian requests to join the investigation to an arsonist investigating their own fire.