Not since the dark days of the Cold War have relations between the UK and Russia been so bad. The poisoning of the Skripal's has opened a wound between the two states that doesn't look like it's healing. The West is also feeling the icy blast from Moscow as the two sides continue their war of words.

The Russians are certainly defiant in their stance.

In an extraordinary attack, Vassily Nebenzia, the Russian Ambassador to the UN said: "Couldn't you come up with a better fake story? We all know what the worth of British intelligence information is based on the experience of Tony Blair."

Expert chemists

Vassily Nebenzia went on to reference the popular British TV show "Midsummer Murders" when he said: "Everyone knows crime novels, for example, the Midsummer Murders-a well known British series-they all know hundreds of ways of killing someone."

Theresa May and Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson also came under fire from the ambassador when he said that they were "expert chemists" and pointing to the latest statements that have come from the UK military research laboratory, Porton Down.

Porton Down

Just this week the director of Porton Down, Gary Aitkenhead said that the nerve agent was "military grade Novichok, which could probably only be deployed by a nation-state." However, he pointed out that the investigation had concluded that Russia was culpable based on a combination of findings from his laboratory as well as other sources.

Guinea pigs

This astonishing act of pure theatre even extended to enquiring about the health of Sergei Skripal's guinea pigs. He went on to make references to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda chief, claiming the UK was manipulating the media in the same way that Nazi Germany did.

He also mocked that fact that the attacker didn't finish the job but did add: "Yulia, thank God, seems to be improving rapidly."

What has Russia got to fear?

In a reference to the great Sherlock Holmes and his famous adversary, Professor Moriarty, the UK ambassador to the UN, Karen Pierce said in a statement to the press before the meeting that "Allowing Russian scientists into an investigation where they are most likely the perpetrators of the crime in Salisbury would be like Scotland Yard inviting in Professor Moriarty, so I don't think that's a tenable way forward."

Ms. Pierce went further saying that the Russians are trying to "build a narrative of how they won't accept the OPCW results."

Ms. Pierce added: "We ask, what have the Russians got to fear?"
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