Skripal nerve agent plot not possible, says Putin

Vladimir Putin said it was “not possible” that Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned in Salisbury by a military nerve agent and raised further doubts about the UK’S insistence that Russia attacked them. “I’m not an expert, but as far as I can picture, if a military-grade toxic agent is used, then the victims of this attack die on the spot,” the Russian president said at a St Petersburg’s economic forum. The international chemical weapons watchdog said Novichok, a nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union, was used to poison them.