Russia requests UN meeting on poisoning of ex-spy

MOSCOW — Russia’s U.N. ambassador has called for an open meeting of the U.N. Security Council Thursday on the poisoning of a former spy and his daughter in Britain.

Vassily Nebenzia made the request at the end of his speech Wednesday to a council meeting on chemical weapons in Syria.

Nebenzia said Russia requested the council meeting because it shares the principle that the use of chemical weapons anywhere “is not acceptable and must be investigated and perpetrators punished, and that impunity is unacceptable.”

Kuwait’s U.N. Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaibi told reporters the meeting is scheduled at 3 p.m. EDT on Thursday.

Nebenzia’s request follows a meeting of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Wednesday requested by Russia on the incident in the English city of Salisbury.

READ MORE: Putin calls for probe into spy poisoning, saying scientists have failed to identify source of nerve agent

Earlier, Russia’s envoy to the international chemical weapons watchdog complained that Britain’s work with the agency on the poisoning of a former spy has not been transparent.

Alexander Shulgin told a news conference Wednesday that “Russia as well as other states that are members of the executive committee have been pushed aside from this investigation.”

He spoke after a special session of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons called by Russia, which vehemently denies Britain’s allegations that Moscow was responsible for the nerve-agent poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

The two were found poisoned in the British city of Salisbury a month ago.