OPCW to meet over Skripal episode

The world’s chemical weapons watchdog said it would hold a meeting at Russia’s request on Wednesday to discuss Britain’s allegations that Moscow was behind the poisoning of an ex-spy in England.

“The chairperson of the Executive Council... has received a request by the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation... to convene a meeting of the Executive Council,” the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said on Tuesday.

Britain has said it is “highly likely” that Moscow was responsible for an attempt to poison former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury on March 4.

In a letter dated last Thursday, Russia’s Ambassador to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin asked for the meeting to discuss the British allegations “in a confidential sitting”.

After the poisoning, Britain announced it would expel 23 Russian diplomats, the first in a series of moves in diplomatic retaliation against Moscow by Western countries.

The U.K. suspended high-level diplomatic contact with Moscow and said it would not send any members of its royal family to the football World Cup Russia is hosting in June.

In response, Russia expelled 23 British diplomats, closed a British consulate in St. Petersburg and halted the activities of the British Council.