The Prime Minister's statement about the Salisbury Attack.
Theresa May told the House of Commons today that the Salisbury attack was carried out using a “military grade” nerve agent developed by the former Soviet Union.
The PM said that Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with one of a series of nerve agent known collectively as Novichock, and there were two possible explanations: either the attack was an act of the Russian state, or Russia has lost control of a deadly banned substance.
She said that “the government has concluded it was highly likely Russia was responsible” for the attack.
Russia’s ambassador in London has been summoned to the Foreign Office to explain whether the Salisbury attack was “a direct action by the Russian state” and if not how the Russian Government managed to lose control of its stock of nerve agents.
Novichok is a series of nerve agents that were developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s and which are allegedly the most deadly nerve poisons ever made.
In the 1990s trial for treason of Russian whistleblower Vil Mirzayanov, the Russian authorities openly admitted that these agents had been produced by the Soviet state.
Mirsayanov had gone public with his safety and environmental concerns after finding concentrations of hazardous substances at more than eighty times the safe level outside a Russian chemical weapons facility.
Expert witness statements prepared for the KGB by three scientists said that Novichok and other related chemical agents had indeed been produced and the KGB argued in court that therefore the disclosure of this by Mirzayanov represented high treason. (He was initially imprisoned but later released.)
Boris Johnson has told the Russian ambassador that Moscow must “immediately provide full and complete disclosure” of its Novichok nerve gas programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, giving Russia until the end of Tuesday to respond, said Mrs May.
She added that if Russia does not give a “credible response”, the government will conclude that the attack involved “unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom.”
The PM also said that if the government does come to that conclusion, she will return to the Commons to outline proposals for proportionate retaliatory measures.
The PM said that Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with one of a series of nerve agent known collectively as Novichock, and there were two possible explanations: either the attack was an act of the Russian state, or Russia has lost control of a deadly banned substance.
She said that “the government has concluded it was highly likely Russia was responsible” for the attack.
Russia’s ambassador in London has been summoned to the Foreign Office to explain whether the Salisbury attack was “a direct action by the Russian state” and if not how the Russian Government managed to lose control of its stock of nerve agents.
Novichok is a series of nerve agents that were developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s and which are allegedly the most deadly nerve poisons ever made.
In the 1990s trial for treason of Russian whistleblower Vil Mirzayanov, the Russian authorities openly admitted that these agents had been produced by the Soviet state.
Mirsayanov had gone public with his safety and environmental concerns after finding concentrations of hazardous substances at more than eighty times the safe level outside a Russian chemical weapons facility.
Expert witness statements prepared for the KGB by three scientists said that Novichok and other related chemical agents had indeed been produced and the KGB argued in court that therefore the disclosure of this by Mirzayanov represented high treason. (He was initially imprisoned but later released.)
Boris Johnson has told the Russian ambassador that Moscow must “immediately provide full and complete disclosure” of its Novichok nerve gas programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, giving Russia until the end of Tuesday to respond, said Mrs May.
She added that if Russia does not give a “credible response”, the government will conclude that the attack involved “unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom.”
The PM also said that if the government does come to that conclusion, she will return to the Commons to outline proposals for proportionate retaliatory measures.
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