Russia accuses Britain of hiding attack evidence

Russia has accused the UK of deliberately concealing evidence in the escalating war of words over the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

The Russian foreign ministry head of non-proliferation and arms control insisted Moscow bore no responsibility for the incident and dismissed British demands for an explanation as “absurd”.

At a “briefing” for foreign diplomats in Moscow, Vladimir Yermakov questioned whether the incident – which left Sergei Skripal and his daughter fighting for their lives – even involved a nerve agent.

“All the facts are being concealed intentionally and the real evidence could (have) vanished. This has happened before in Great Britain, repeatedly,” he said.

However, giving evidence to MPs, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the trail of evidence led “inexorably” to the regime of Vladimir Putin. Mr Johnson said: “As we saw in the case of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, the trail of responsibility for such assassinations and assassination attempts does lead inexorably back to the Kremlin.”

Military scientists at Porton Down concluded the Skripals had been poisoned by a Russianmade Novichok nerve agent.