Source, admits UK defence lab
LONDON: Britain's defense laboratory acknowledged Tuesday it hasn't tracked down the source of the nerve agent that poisoned a Russian ex-spy, a statement the Kremlin said proved that British accusations of Moscow's involvement were baseless.
Scientists at the UK'S Porton Down lab previously identified the poison as a Soviet-developed type of nerve agent known as Novichok. The British government has said the only plausible explanation was that it came from Russia and blamed Russia for the attack on the former double agent and his adult daughter.
Porton Down chief executive Gary Aitkenhead said Tuesday that scientists at the lab "have not verified the precise source, but we provided the scientific information to the government who have then used a number of other sources to piece together the conclusions that they have come to."
Aitkenhead told Sky News the attack with a highly toxic chemical weapon was "probably only within the capabilities of a state actor." At the same time, the lab's job is "to provide the scientific evidence that identifies what the particular nerve agent is ... but it's not our job to say where that was actually manufactured," he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin quickly pointed at Aitkenhead's statement as evidence that British accusations of Russian involvement were unfounded. Moscow has fiercely denied being behind the March 4 attack.
"The speed at which the antirussian campaign was launched causes bewilderment," Putin said from Turkey, where he met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Putin added that Russia will push for a thorough probe and expects the international chemical weapons watchdog to consider Russia's input.
"We want a thorough investigation. We would like to take part in it and expect to receive all the relevant materials," Putin said. He insisted the nerve agent that Britain said was used to attack former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, could have been produced by some 20 nations. MOSCOW: Russia on Wednesday accused British and US secret services of being behind the poisoning of a Russian former double agent as the world's chemical weapons watchdog held a closed-door meeting on the incident at Moscow's request. Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin said the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a nerve agent was a "grotesque provocation... that was crudely concocted by the British and American security services" with the intention of implicating Russia.
He also warned that Moscow and the West must avoid escalating their current standoff to the dangerous levels reached at the height of the Cold War. British and Russian officials meanwhile faced off at a closed-door meeting of the Organisation for OPCW for the first time since the poisoning of the Skripals on March 4. ISTANBUL: Turkey and Russia have agreed to bring forward to July 2019 the delivery of S-400 air defence missile systems to Ankara, a Turkish official said, in a purchase that has raised eyebrows among NATO allies.
"We brought forward the delivery date in the contract signed with Russia for the acquisition of S-400 systems and got an earlier date of July 2019," Ismail Demir, Turkish Defence Industries undersecretary, wrote on Twitter late on Tuesday.
His announcement came after Russian President Vladimir Putin held several hours of meeting with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.
At the press conference, Putin said he and Erdogan had decided to "speed up" the delivery of the S-400 air defence missile systems to Ankara, without providing a precise date.
Russian officials had said in December that the first deliveries in the USD 2 billion deal were likely to begin at the end of 2019 or beginning of 2020.