London is basing its accusations on allegations that Moscow has been researching ways to deliver nerve agents, “probably for assassination,” and on the assumption that it “views former intelligence officers as targets,” a UK Foreign Office statement says. “It is our assessment that Russia was responsible for this brazen and reckless act and, as the international community agrees, there is no other plausible explanation.”

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The damage control statement comes following a Sky News interview by the head of Porton Down, a top-secret army base tasked with finding links between A-234 (which London refers to as the Soviet-engineered nerve agent Novichok) and Moscow. While the scientists said they managed to identify the chemical, they could not point to a precise source.

Still, London maintains it was Russian, because scientific results are “only one part of the intelligence picture.”

“As the Prime Minister has set out in a number of statements to the Commons since 12 March, this includes our knowledge that within the last decade, Russia has investigated ways of delivering nerve agents probably for assassination – and as part of this programme has produced and stockpiled small quantities of Novichoks (sic); Russia’s record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations; and our assessment that Russia views former intelligence officers as targets,” the Foreign Office statement says.

A Salisbury MP was quick to downplay Porton Down’s role in the investigation, saying it’s not the chemical lab’s place to determine how the chemical was delivered.

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