Chizhov: The nerve agent used in the attack on Skripal may have come from a British laboratory

The Permanent Representative of Russia to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, said today that the nerve agent that London claims was used in the attack on the former spy could have been made in a British laboratory. Chizhov said Russia has no stockpiles of chemical weapons and was not behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. In a statement broadcast to the BBC today, a Russian diplomat said that the British chemical weapons research center Porton Down is only 12 kilometers from Salisbury, where the poisoned Skripal and his daughter were found. Asked if he thought the nerve agent was from the laboratory of a British research center, Chizhov replied that he did not know. The British government rejected the claims of the Russian permanent representative to the European Union as "nonsense". The Russian ambassador in London, Aleksandar Yakovenko, appealed today for the situation to calm down, with the assessment that the dispute is escalating worryingly. British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday that Moscow is "to blame" for the attack, which she said was caused by the Novichok nerve agent, which was developed in the former Soviet Union. London announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats and the freezing of bilateral relations with Russia, and Moscow retaliated by expelling British diplomats. The existence of "novichok" was disclosed by the Russian media by chemist Vil Mirzayanov in the 1990s. The Russian scientist later defected to the US, where he published the chemical formula of the agent in his book "State Secrets", according to the BBC. Former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned on March 4.