Putin says claims Russia was behind nerve agent attack are 'drivel'/puti...

Putin says claims Russia was behind nerve agent attack are 'drivel'



Russian president Vladimir Putin has said claims his country was behind the Salisbury poisoning are 'drivel, rubbish, nonsense' as he won a landslide victory in yesterday's election.



He also contradicted Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's claims earlier today that Russia has been stockpiling Novichok - the nerve agent used in the attack.



Putin said Russia has 'destroyed all chemical weapons' as he gave a victory speech in Red Square, during which he also pledged to work with British police over Salisbury.



Johnson yesterday claimed Russia has kept producing Novichok as the row over the Salisbury attack escalated.



He added: 'With regards to this trag*dy, the first thing that came to my mind: If this was a military substance, they would have died straight away. You have to understand that. Second, we don't have chemical weapons.



'We've gotten rid of that, unlike some of our international partners.'



Russia is 'ready to cooperate,' he explained, stressing: 'We are ready to take part in the necessary investigations, but for that there needs be a desire from the other side, and we don't see that yet. But we are not taking it off the agenda, joint efforts are possible.



'As a whole, of course, I think any sensible person would understand that it would be rubbish, drivel, nonsense, for Russia to embark on such an escapade on the eve of a presidential election. It's just unthinkable.'





The Foreign Secretary said the UK had evidence that development of the nerve agent had continued over the past ten years - despite Moscow's claims to have destroyed it.



Mr Johnson also revealed that chemical experts will be coming to the UK tomorrow to check the samples from the scene of the attempted murder of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. 



Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr show, Mr Johnson said: 'We actually have evidence within the last ten years that Russia has not only been investigating the delivery of nerve agents for the purposes of assassination but has also been creating and stockpiling Novichok.' 



The news came as Mr Johnson warned that only Russians would suffer due to Moscow's expulsion of 23 British diplomats and the closure of the British Council.



Mr Johnson said the UK was in the 'Kremlin's crosshairs' because Britain is the country that has 'time and again called Russia out'.



The US, Germany, France and the Baltic countries had all experienced 'Russian meddling, malign, disruptive, Russian behaviour', he said.



'They can see a country that is going in the wrong direction and that's why they are so inclined now not to give Russia the benefit of the doubt and to stand shoulder to shoulder with the UK.'



Mr Johnson said experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will arrive in the UK tomorrow.



The team from the Hague will meet officials from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and police to discuss the process.





Samples will then be despatched to international laboratories selected by the OPCW for testing. Results are expected to take at least two weeks.



Mr Johnson made clear that the government's evidence on Russia suggested it had broken the Chemical Weapons Convention.



Moscow is said to have investigated ways of delivering nerve agents for assassination, and part of the programme involved producing and stockpiling quantities of Novichok.



Branding Vladimir Putin a 'bully', Mr Johnson jibed that his regime was 'isolated'. 'We have friends across the world and he does not,' he said. 



Mr Johnson also took aim at Jeremy Corbyn over his unwillingness to condemn Russia over the outrage, saying: 'He let down his party and country by seemingly aiding the efforts of the Russian propaganda machine by casting doubt over what is obvious to any objective onlooker.'





Theresa May has said Britain and its allies are considering their next move and the national security council will meet again this week.



Former double agent Mr Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter remain in a critical condition in hospital, while Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was exposed to the Novichok nerve agent while responding to the incident, is no longer considered critical.



Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday that it had ordered the British diplomats to leave within a week and indicated it could take further action should there be what it called more 'unfriendly' moves.



Writing in the Sun on Sunday, Mr Johnson said: 'These futile measures will only pun*sh ordinary Russians by depriving them of harmless opportunities to learn English and apply for UK visas.



'Today Russia stands alone and isolated.



'That fact demonstrates the most telling difference between Britain and Putin: we have friends across the world and he does not.'



Mr Johnson added: 'We knew there would be risks in opposing the Kremlin - resisting a bully is always risky.