Putin says claims Russia was behind nerve agent attack on spy are 'drivel' as he insists his country has destroyed ALL its chemical weapons despite Boris Johnson's claims it has stockpiled them for ten years

• Boris Johnson has torn into the Kremlin over poisoning of former spy in Salisbury
• Foreign Secretary said only Russians would suffer due to diplomatic tit-for-tat 
• Branded Vladimir Putin 'bully' and jibed that Russia has 'no friends' around world
• Chemical experts due in UK tomorrow to start studying samples from Salisbury

Russian president Vladimir Putin has said claims his country was behind the Salisbury poisoning are 'drivel, rubbish, nonsense' as he won a landslide victory in yesterday's election.

He also contradicted Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's claims earlier today that Russia has been stockpiling Novichok - the nerve agent used in the attack. 

Putin said Russia has 'destroyed all chemical weapons' as he gave a victory speech in Red Square, during which he also pledged to work with British police over Salisbury.

Johnson yesterday claimed Russia has kept producing Novichok as the row over the Salisbury attack escalated.

He added: 'With regards to this tragedy, the first thing that came to my mind: If this was a military substance, they would have died straight away. You have to understand that. Second, we don't have chemical weapons. 

'We've gotten rid of that, unlike some of our international partners.' 

Russia is 'ready to cooperate,' he explained, stressing: 'We are ready to take part in the necessary investigations, but for that there needs be a desire from the other side, and we don't see that yet. But we are not taking it off the agenda, joint efforts are possible.

'As a whole, of course, I think any sensible person would understand that it would be rubbish, drivel, nonsense, for Russia to embark on such an escapade on the eve of a presidential election. It's just unthinkable.' 

The Foreign Secretary said the UK had evidence that development of the nerve agent had continued over the past ten years - despite Moscow's claims to have destroyed it.

Mr Johnson also revealed that chemical experts will be coming to the UK tomorrow to check the samples from the scene of the attempted murder of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.  

Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr show, Mr Johnson said: '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 news came as Mr Johnson warned that only Russians would suffer due to Moscow's expulsion of 23 British diplomats and the closure of the British Council. 

Mr Johnson said the UK was in the 'Kremlin's crosshairs' because Britain is the country that has 'time and again called Russia out'.

The US, Germany, France and the Baltic countries had all experienced 'Russian meddling, malign, disruptive, Russian behaviour', he said.

'They can see a country that is going in the wrong direction and that's why they are so inclined now not to give Russia the benefit of the doubt and to stand shoulder to shoulder with the UK.'

Mr Johnson said experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will arrive in the UK tomorrow.

The team from the Hague will meet officials from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and police to discuss the process.

Samples will then be despatched to international laboratories selected by the OPCW for testing. Results are expected to take at least two weeks. 

Mr Johnson made clear that the government's evidence on Russia suggested it had broken the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Moscow is said to have investigated ways of delivering nerve agents for assassination, and part of the programme involved producing and stockpiling quantities of Novichok.

Branding Vladimir Putin a 'bully', Mr Johnson jibed that his regime was 'isolated'. 'We have friends across the world and he does not,' he said.  

Mr Johnson also took aim at Jeremy Corbyn over his unwillingness to condemn Russia over the outrage, saying: 'He let down his party and country by seemingly aiding the efforts of the Russian propaganda machine by casting doubt over what is obvious to any objective onlooker.'

Theresa May has said Britain and its allies are considering their next move and the national security council will meet again this week.

Former double agent Mr Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter remain in a critical condition in hospital, while Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was exposed to the Novichok nerve agent while responding to the incident, is no longer considered critical.

Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday that it had ordered the British diplomats to leave within a week and indicated it could take further action should there be what it called more 'unfriendly' moves.

Writing in the Sun on Sunday, Mr Johnson said: 'These futile measures will only punish ordinary Russians by depriving them of harmless opportunities to learn English and apply for UK visas.

'Today Russia stands alone and isolated.

'That fact demonstrates the most telling difference between Britain and Putin: we have friends across the world and he does not.' 

Mr Johnson added: 'We knew there would be risks in opposing the Kremlin - resisting a bully is always risky. 

'But we did it anyway because we knew it to be right.'

Speaking at the Conservative Spring Forum yesterday, Mrs May said the Government had 'anticipated' a response to her decision to expel 23 Russian 'spies' from London.

She said: 'Russia's response doesn't change the facts of the matter – the attempted assassination of two people on British soil for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian state was culpable.

'It is Russia that is in flagrant breach of international law and the Chemical Weapons Convention.'

Mrs May also received support from Labour former PM Tony Blair and her old foe George Osborne. 

Asked at the Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF) in Dubai about the British response to the Salisbury nerve agent attack, former prime minister Tony Blair said: 'I think the Government has done the right thing in relation to it.

'It can't allow such a thing to happen and not take action.

'But I think there's a bigger question underlying that, because over the years there's been periodic action taken.

'What this shows is the importance of the alliance and the importance of having the allies in conversation with each other where they are able to work out the strategy for keeping the West strong, because you are defending certain values.'

What is the Novichok nerve agent used against the Skripals?

The Novichok nerve agent used against former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia is among the most deadly poisons ever created.

They were secretly developed by the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold war in the 1970s and 1980s.

Communist scientists developed the poison so it would not be able to be detected by Nato's chemical detection equipment.

They come in the form of a ultra-fine powder, Novichok is up to eight times more potent than the deadly VX gas.

Victims who are poisoned by the powder suffer muscle spasms, breathing problems and then cardiac arrest.

There is a known antidote to the nerve agent -  atropine can block the poison.

But doctors find it very tricky to administer the antidote because the dose would have to be so high it could prove fatal for the person. 

Novichok poisons are highly dangerous to handle, requiring the expertise of skilled scientists in a sophisticated lab.

Dr Vil Mirzayanov, former Chief of the Foreign Technical Counterintelligence Department at Russia’s premiere, was among the team of scientists who helped develop the agent.

In an article about the lethal weapon, he wrote: 'They are extremely dangerous – most likely lethal – for people who would try to synthesise or manipulate them without the help of highly experienced scientists and engineers in special laboratory installations observing extreme safety measures.

'Without exception, Novichok weapons cannot be used for any reason without specially trained military personnel under medical supervision.'

Bodies of exiles who died suddenly could be exhumed

The bodies of two Russian exiles who died suddenly in Britain could be exhumed and tested for nerve agent poisoning, it emerged last night.

One is Alexander Perepilichny, 43, who collapsed while out jogging at his home in the St George’s Hill area of Weybridge, Surrey, in 2012. He had provided evidence of fraud perpetrated by Kremlin-linked officials.

The other is Badri Patarkatsishvili, who died suddenly at his mansion in Leatherhead, Surrey in 2008 – seven years after fleeing his homeland.

The 52-year-old was a business partner of Boris Berezovsky, an enemy of Vladimir Putin who was also found dead in his Surrey home in 2013.

Another business partner, 68-year-old Nikolai Glushkov, was murdered a week ago at his home in south London.

Police said he was strangled. Friends of both Perepilichny and Patarkatsishvili have called for their remains to be exhumed for further testing, according to the Daily Telegraph. One source, who wished to remain anonymous over fears of retaliation, said: ‘The Home Office must consider exhuming Badri’s body.

‘They never did the toxicological report. Surrey Police just said he had a bad heart and had a heart attack. But I had seen him before his death and he was absolutely fine.’

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has called for a fresh probe to be conducted by MI5 and police into 14 unexplained deaths, including Perepilichny, Patarkatsishvili and Berezovsky.

Yvette Cooper, the Labour chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, said: ‘It is clear that further criminal investigations are needed into the activities of the Russian state on our soil.’

The Metropolitan Police said it could not comment while the Salisbury investigation was still underway. The Home Office declined to give more details ‘at this stage’.

Appearing on stage at the Global Education and Skills Forum with Mr Blair, Mr Osborne said Russian interference on British soil was 'staggering'.

'No state can tolerate that. No alliance of western states can accept that,' he said.

'People in Britain will know I'm not a completely enthusiastic support of Mrs May, but I think she has done a pretty good job.

'She has ratcheted up the response, she has expelled Russian diplomats and she has got to think... how do I react to the Russian reaction?

'So she has got to keep further options in her locker to make sure that you can increase the pressure.

Meanwhile, counter-terrorism police renewed their appeal for sightings of Mr Skripal's burgundy BMW 320D saloon car, registration HD09 WAO, in Salisbury on the morning of Sunday, March 4.

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said: 'We are learning more about Sergei and Yulia's movements but we need to be clearer around their exact movements on the morning of the incident.' 

Johnson warns against blaming all Russians for Putin's actions as he defends donations to Tories  

Boris Johnson today warned against blaming all Russians in the UK for the actions of Vladimir Putin's regime.

The Foreign Secretary insisted the government is determined to crack down on any dirty money that Oligrachs have pumped into London.

But he defended the Tories decision to take donations from Russians who have moved to Britain and been given citizenship. 

Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr show, Mr Johnson confirmed he played a tennis game with a Russian donor to the Conservative Party whose husband reportedly has close links to the Kremlin.

Asked whether the tennis match with with Vladimir Chernukhin's wife, who had paid £160,000 to the Tories for the pleasure, actually took place, he replied: 'It did.'

But Mr Johnson insisted that the Russian people should not be demonised. 

'If there is evidence of gross corruption in the way that gentleman you mentioned obtained his wealth, then it is well within, it is possible, for our law enforcement agencies to deprive him of his wealth,' he said.

'That is a matter for the authorities, it is not a matter for me.'

Mr Johnson added: 'Unless and until evidence is produced against individual Russians, I do not think that the entire nation should be, there are many Russian who have come to this country and made their lives here and contributed magnificently to our culture and our society.'