Boris Johnson says Russia is 'not fooling anyone' with 'increasingly absurd' Salisbury nerve agent attack denials

The Foreign Secretary has warned the Russian government that it is “not fooling anyone” with its “increasingly absurd” denials of culpability for use of a nerve agent on British soil.

Arriving at a meeting with EU foreign affairs ministers in Brussels on Monday morning Boris Johnson said Vladimir Putin’s regime was trying to “conceal the needle of truth in a haystack of lies and obfuscation”.

Mr Johnson will brief the 27 other EU foreign ministers on the 4 March incident, in a meeting which EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said would “first and foremost” focus on the Salisbury attack among other issues.

The ministers are expected to issue a joint statement on the incident later this morning after discussions.

The Foreign Secretary said he had been “heartened” by support for the UK and that Britain was acting “in punctilious accordance with our obligations under the treaty on chemical weapons” – in contrast, he said, to Russia.

Officials from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons are arriving in the UK today to take samples of the nerve agent used in the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, he confirmed. The British government says the substance is Novichok, a Russian-developed weapon, but Russia has denied have any stockpiles of it.

Mr Johnson told reporters on the doorstep of the summit: “The Russian denials grow increasingly absurd. At one time they say they never made Novichok, at another they say they did make Novichok but all the stocks have been destroyed, and then again they say that they made Novichok and all the stocks have been destroyed but some of them have mysteriously escaped to Sweden, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the United States, or even the United Kingdom.

“I think what people can see is that this is a classic Russia strategy of trying to conceal the needle of truth in a haystack of lies and obfuscation. What really strikes me talking to European friends and partners today is that 12 years after the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko in London they’re not fooling anybody anymore.

“There is scarcely a country around the table here in Brussels that has not been affected by some kind of malign of disruptive Russian behaviours. That is why I think the strength and resolve of our European friends is so striking today.”

Reacting to the Foreign Secretary’s comments a spokesperson for the Kremlin said allegations that Russia was involved in the poisoning were “slanderous, groundless, and difficult to explain”. The spokesperson added that the UK would have to provide evidence or apologise.

In a potential foretaste of the discussion on the issue, Spanish foreign minister Alfonso Dastis told reporters as he arrived: “We think now the time is for an extended examination of all the elements involved with the participation of the OPCW. We are definitely going to keep the issue under consideration in the context of the EU, we’ll see.” When asked, he confirmed that Spain gave its full support to Britain.

EU foreign affairs chief Ms Mogherini said: “We have a particularly intense agenda today with the ministers. First and foremost we’ll hear from Boris Johnson for a debrief on Salisbury.

“I would expect that well say something in the course of the morning so you’ll hear a renewed EU position in that respect. What is absolutely clear is our full solidarity with the United Kingdom and our extreme concern about what has happened, that is extremely unacceptable.”