MOSCOW, March 17. /TASS/. Neither the Soviet Union nor Russia has ever carried out research to develop a substance codenamed Novichok, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Rossiya’24 TV channel on Saturday.

"Neither in the territory of the Soviet Union, nor in the Soviet era, nor in the Russian Federation has ever been performed research named directly or codenamed as Novichok," she said.