Putin denies Sergei Skripal spy poisoning saying Russian military nerve agents ‘kill on the spot’

VLADIMIR Putin has rejected British accusations of Russian involvement in ex-spy Sergei Skripal's poisoning as "nonsense".

The Russian president, who has just been elected for a record fourth term, said the claims are "drivel" and "rubbish" in his victory speech today.

In his first comments on the poisoning, Putin said the attack on the ex-KGB spy and his daughter in Salisbury, Wiltshire was a "tragedy".

But he added that if British claims they were poisoned by the Soviet-designed nerve agent were true, the victims would have died instantly.

"It's quite obvious that if it were a military-grade nerve agent, people would have died on the spot," he said.

"Russia doesn't have such means. We have destroyed all our chemical weapons under international oversight unlike some of our partners."

Putin again stressed that "it's nonsense that Russia would do such a thing" and "more people would have died in England if it had been a military nerve agent."

He also added that Russia is "ready to co-operate with Britain" to investigate the spy's poisoning.

Earlier today Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson claimed Putin's regime has spent a decade looking in to how to deploy deadly nerve agents across the world.

He told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "We actually have evidence within the last ten years that Russia has not only been investigating the delivery of nerve agents for the purposes of assassination, but has also been creating and stockpiling novichok."

The minister blasted Russia for its efforts to deny responsibility for the attempted hit in Salisbury.

He said: "The trail of responsibility leads inexorably to the Kremlin.

"We gave the Russians every opportunity to come up with an alternative hypothesis and they haven't - their response has been a mixture of smug sarcasm and denial."

Inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will arrive in the UK on Monday to test the nerve-agent but the results will take at least two weeks.

The team from The Hague will use international laboratories to carry out tests on the nerve agent.

Mr Johnson will travel to Brussels to brief foreign ministers from across the European Union at a meeting on Monday on the attempted assassinations before holding talks Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg.

The national security council will meet early next week to discuss Moscow's tit-for-tat response to the UK's expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats.

Previously,  it was reported that Skripal and his daughter may have been exposed to the deadly nerve agent which could have been circulated in his car's ventilation systems.

Previously,  it was reported that Skripal and his daughter may have been exposed to the deadly nerve agent which could have been circulated in his car's ventilation systems.

The Sun also revealed today how the boyfriend of nerve poison victim Yulia Skripal was a Russian secret service agent.

Yulia, 33, was in a stormy relationship with a mystery Russian said to belong to Vladimir Putin’s intelligence network.

It also emerged yesterday that Yulia worked in the US Embassy in Moscow during their on-off fling, adding fuel to the theory that Yulia may have been deliberately targeted as well as her dad Sergei, 66.

Results from more than half of precincts showed Putin winning over 75 per cent of the vote, with Communist candidate Pavel Grudinin and ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky trailing far behind with about 13 and six per cent, respectively.

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