Britain Wednesday slammed as "perverse" Moscow's call for a joint investigation into the poisoning of a former Russian double agent as the world's chemical watchdog met on the scandal.
"Russia's proposal for a joint, UK/Russian investigation into the Salisbury incident is perverse. It is a diversionary tactic," the British delegation to the OPCW said in a tweet.
Moscow was seeking to "evade the questions the Russian authorities must answer," it added.
The British delegation to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), led by top chemical weapons expert John Foggo, was attending a meeting of the body's governing executive council in The Hague.
The talks were called by Moscow, after London blamed Russia for the March 4 poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a nerve agent, called Novichok.
Russia's ambassador to the Netherlands and deputy minister for industry and trade Georgy Kalamanov also attended, along with Foggo.
The Russians hit back on Twitter, saying they had won backing from 14 countries for their joint statement to the council.
"We consider this is necessary to ensure that this problem is solved within the (international) legal framework," the Russian embassy to the Netherlands said in a Tweet.
It added that its statement to the council was "supported by solid facts by experts in this field" and insisted that Russia was ready "to cooperate both with OPCW and within OPCW."