Moscow never had any programmes to develop the Novichok nerve agent Britain says was used on former double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain, deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said Thursday.
"I want to state with all possible certainty that the Soviet Union or Russia had no programmes to develop a toxic agent called Novichok," he told Interfax news agency.
He slammed people "distributing information that the programme allegedly existed," an apparent reference to Soviet chemist Vil Mirzayanov, who first revealed the existence of that class of ultra-powerful nerve agents.
Mirzayanov, who now lives in the United States, says Moscow invented the highly toxic nerve agent during the Cold War and used to make it in a Moscow-based institute where he worked until the early 1990s.
"We ended all research in the sphere of new military toxic agents after joining the (Chemical Weapons) Convention, and last year... all stockpiles of toxic agents were destroyed," said Ryabkov.
He said the United States has failed to do the same.
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"I hope that debates around the tragedy in Salisbury will not be a new pretext for the US to depart from what they have to do within the framework of their own obligations," he added.
Britain and its allies France, Germany and the United States have pointed the finger at Moscow over the nerve agent poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal, who remains in critical condition along with his daughter Yulia.
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