Russia tested how to smear nerve agent on door handles, Britain says in shock dossier
RUSSIA carried out secret tests on how to smear the deadly Novichok nerve agent on door handles, Britain claimed today in a bombshell dossier of e v i d e n c e a g a i n s t Mo s c ow in the Salisbury poisoning case.
The UK’s national security adviser Sir Mark Sedwill also told how Russian intelligence officers are believed to have been hacking into emails from former spy Sergei Skripal’s daughter Yulia since 2013.
In a letter to Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, Mr Sedwill also revealed that intelligence chiefs had identified the laboratory where Russia is thought to have developed Novichok. The Kremlin denies it has a ny s to c k p i l e s o f it or that i t wa s involved in poisoning ex-double agent Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter, 33, last month. But the release of the previously highly classified information will cast fresh doubts over Russia’s denials.
The deadly toxin is believed to have been smeared on the door handle of Mr Skripal’s home in the Wiltshire city.
Independent inspectors working for the Organisation for the Prohibition of C h e m i c a l We a p o n s yesterday confirmed that the nerve agent used in the Salisbury attack was from the Novichok family of toxins — as swiftly discovered by British investigators.
They also highlighted its “high purity”, which further pointed towards state involvement.
The Government is stressing that there is no “plausible alternative explanation” other than that Moscow was behind the targeting of the Skripals.
The UK has shared intelligence with EU countries and other allies leading to 30 nations expelling 150 Russian diplomats, many suspected of being spies, with tit-for-tat responses by Moscow. Yulia Skripal has been released from hospital but her father is still being treated in Salisbury.
Russian intelligence officers are believed to have been hacking into Yulia Skripal’s emails since 2013