LONDON, September 26. /TASS/. London has no meaningful evidence of Moscow’s involvement in the poisoning of former GRU (Russian foreign intelligence directorate) officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, the press officer of the Russian Embassy in the UK told reporters on Thursday, calling on the UK side to make public all data of the investigation.

On September 25, the Metropolitan Police informed that no traces of the Novichok toxic agent were found in the blood samples of various individuals that might have been affected by the agent in March 2018.

"Leaving aside the question of why the tests have been carried out only now, let us point out that the absence of traces of "Novichok" does not help to support the official British version of the incident," the embassy press officer said.

"18 months have now passed since Russia was subjected to high-level accusations, with major diplomatic repercussions. A year has passed since names and pictures of the suspects were made public. The UK authorities, claiming to have irrefutable evidence of their responsibility, have persuaded their allies to make unfriendly steps against Russia. Yet now the police is again asking members of the public whether they saw Mr Boshirov and Mr Petrov in the UK on 2 - 4 March 2018, or else whether they came across a Nina Ricci perfume box between 4 March and 27 June," the Russian diplomat continued.

"That these questions are being asked by the police may only be explained by a single fact: the investigation has never had any meaningful evidence of Russia, or individual Russian nationals, being involved in the poisonings of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, [police officer] Nick Bailey, [affected UK citizens] Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley," he noted.

Russia’s demands remain unchanged

"Interests of British and Russian public, as well as those of a normalization of Russian-British relations, would be best served by an immediate publication of all data of the investigation that has led the British political leadership to mount accusations against Russia. Photos of the two individuals at an 8 minute walking distance from Mr Skripal’s place, or a sealed bottle found under unclear circumstances weeks after (if it ever existed), can no longer satisfy or impress anyone," the Russian diplomat stated.

"Russia continues to demand that the UK clarifies the situation of the two Russian nationals, Sergei and Yulia Skripal, allows them consular access, fulfills its obligations to provide legal assistance to the Russian investigation, and returns to normal diplomatic dialogue over the matter. We remain open to cooperation with British law enforcement bodies in investigating the Salisbury incident on the basis of the existing international mechanisms as well as principles of reciprocity and mutual respect," the press officer concluded.

Salisbury and Amesbury incidents

On March 4, 2018, Sergei Skripal, who had been convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain and later swapped for Russian intelligence officers, and his daughter Yulia suffered the effects of the so-called Novichok nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury. Claiming that the substance used in the attack had been a nerve agent allegedly developed in Russia, London rushed to accuse Moscow of being involved in the incident. The Russian side flatly rejected all of the United Kingdom’s accusations, saying that a program aimed at developing such a substance had existed neither in the Soviet Union nor in Russia.

On June 30, 2018, British citizen Dawn Sturgess, 44, and her partner Charlie Rowley, 45, were taken to a hospital in the city of Amesbury in critical condition. On the evening of July 8, the police reported that Sturgess had died, and the investigators launched a murder case. Rowley regained consciousness on July 10. The London police anti-terrorism department earlier stated that Sturgess and Rowley had come into contact with Novichok - the same nerve agent that had poisoned Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

On September 5, 2019, then-Prime Minister of the UK Theresa May informed the country’s parliament about the conclusions that investigators looking into the Salisbury incident had come to, saying that two Russians, believed to be GRU agents, were suspected of conspiracy to murder the Skripals. According to May, the assassination attempt was approved at "a senior level of the Russian state." The Metropolitan Police published the suspects’ photos, saying their names were Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. In an interview with Russia’s RT TV channel released on September 13, Petrov and Boshirov refuted these allegations.