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Russia’s has failed in a “ludicrous” bid for a joint inquiry into the Salisbury attack at a meeting of the global weapons watchdog.

Russia called an emergency meeting of the decision-making executive of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to counter accusations it was behind the nerve agent poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

But it was outvoted by 15-6 in a vote in the Hague.

Boris Johnson branded the bid “ludicrous” and said Russia’s goal was to “obscure the truth and confuse the public.”

The Foreign Secretary, who is under pressure for wrongly claiming Porton Down scientists had pointed the finger at Russia for the attack, said countries around the world "continue to share our assessment" of the incident.

(Image: REUTERS)

He said: "The purpose of Russia's ludicrous proposal at The Hague was clear - to undermine the independent, impartial work of the international chemical weapons watchdog.

"Russia has had one goal in mind since the attempted murders on UK soil through the use of a military-grade chemical weapon - to obscure the truth and confuse the public.

"The international community has yet again seen through these tactics and robustly defeated Russia's attempts today to derail the proper international process.

"It shows that many countries around the world continue to share our assessment of what happened in Salisbury and are determined to stand up to Russia's behaviour."

(Image: AFP)

In a vote at OPCW, six of the 41 members backed Russia while 15 voted against, 17 abstained, two were absent, and one was not entitled to vote.

Nick Heath, deputy British ambassador to The Hague, said Russia had failed again in its attempts to "frustrate the process of justice".

Russian officials speaking after the meeting concluded said they had presented a "common sense" case and pointed to the "lies by Tony Blair " over Iraq as they criticised the intelligence about the attack.

Moscow has called for an emergency session of the UN Security Council on Thursday to discuss the case.

Only six of the 41 OPCW members voted in favour of the Russian draft decision proposing the joint UK/Russian investigation. 15 voted against, including the UK, 17 abstained, 2 were absent, and one was not entitled to vote.

UK ambassador John Foggo accused Russia of showing "disdain" for the independence of the international body, which is conducting tests on samples of the nerve agent used in the March 4 attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

He told the meeting: "The work of the Technical Secretariat must remain impartial.

"Russia's refusal to accept the results of the OPCW's investigation unless Russian experts participate in it suggests that Russia is opposed to the independence and impartiality of the Technical Secretariat and is nervous about what the results will show."

Russia has flatly denied UK claims that it was to blame for the March 4 attack, with foreign intelligence service director Sergei Naryshkin even claiming it was staged by the UK and US as a "provocation".