It has now been over a week since former double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury, poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent.

With echoes of the Litvinenko murder in November 2006, deemed to be ‘probably’ the handiwork of Kremlin agents, the British government has been quick to apportion blame on Russia for the attempted hit.

Unsurprisingly, however, a very different narrative is being played out inside Russia.

What the officials say…

While President Vladimir Putin and his foreign secretary have straight-out denied Russin involvement, many officials have gone a step further.

Central to some responses is a theory that the attack was, in fact, carried out by none other than UK and US intelligence agencies in a Western plot to discredit Mr Putin ahead of presidential elections on Sunday.

Evgenny Primakov Jr, a designated “trusted representative” of Mr Putin, authorised to speak on behalf of his campaign during the Russian presidential election, said: “Frankly, in Moscow we are in shock. The whole thing looks insane. No one here believes this was a Russian attack.

"We are absolutely sure, 100 percent sure, that the whole thing is aimed at our elections. In my personal opinion, I'm absolutely sure Sergei Skripal was poisoned by the British or American secret services."