The British government is reportedly unhappy with the public admission of the head of the Department of Defense's science lab in Porton Down that it was not possible to identify the source of the neurotoxic substance "Novitsok", to which Sergei G. and Sergei G. were exposed.
The admission by Gary Eitkenhead was made in an interview with Sky News, which was approved by the government.
Theresa May has said that according to the government, it is "extremely possible" that Russia is behind the Skripal poisoning.
On social media and on the Moscow-funded English-language television network RT, it was pointed out that in an interview in Germany two weeks ago, Boris Johnson had hinted that he had personally received assurances from scientists in Porton Down that the substance originated in Russia. .
In a statement issued last night, a spokesman for the Foreign Office defended the allegations against Russia, saying that the British side's conclusion was based on a broader picture created by the security information available to London.
"As the Prime Minister has said in a series of statements to the House of Commons from 12 March onwards, this picture includes our knowledge that over the last decade Russia has been exploring ways to obtain neurotoxic gases - possibly for murder - and in the context of of this program has produced and stored small quantities of substances of the Novichok family.
"Also, the history of Russia in committing state-sponsored assassinations and our assessment that Russia considers former intelligence officials as targets. "It is our assessment that Russia is responsible for this reckless and reckless act and as the international community agrees, there is no other reasonable explanation," said a spokesman for the Foreign Office.
At the same time, in a post on Twitter, the people in charge of the laboratory in Porton Down stressed that from the beginning it was their job to do the chemical analysis to determine the substance used against the Scripals and not to determine its origin.
The Times reports that Theresa May is now in a difficult position in the face of international allies who have backed her with the expulsion of Russian diplomats and verbal condemnations. The daily quotes Angela Merkel's Vice President of the Christian Democratic Union, Armin Lasset, as saying that "when one forces all NATO countries to show solidarity, one must have solid evidence".