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The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) published a summary of its analysis, which confirmed the British findings about the nerve agent used in last month's poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia and a police officer who assisted them in Salisbury.
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| © Hannah McKay / Reuters |
Despite the British government's claims of Russian 'culpability' for the poisoning, nowhere does the OPCW's report assign blame for the incident or even identify the source of the agent.
The part of the report that has been released publicly does not even specifically name Novichok as being the substance used, although it says it does name the substance in the parts of the findings which remain classified.
Despite no new evidence being provided, the UK's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson immediately claimed the OPCW's findings meant there was “no doubt” of Russia’s responsibility for the incident. Johnson demanded that Russia “give answers” as “only Russia has the means, motive and record [for the poisoning].”
Last week, Johnson faced accusations of misleading the British public after he said in a televised interview that scientists at the government's military laboratory, Porton Down, had told him the nerve agent definitely came from Russia. The lab’s chief executive later said they had done no such thing.
