Here are 20 different narratives offered (so far) by Russian media and officials for the poisoning:
The United Kingdom did it to fuel anti-Russian sentiment (source: Russia 1 TV channel)
Ukraine did it to frame Russia (Russia 1)
The United States did it to destabilize the world (Russia 1)
Theresa May helped orchestrate the attack because she is a friend of CIA director Gina Haspel (Zvezda)
It was an attempted suicide (Russia 1)
It was an accidental overdose (RIA Novosti)
It was due to accidental exposure from Britain’s Porton Down research facility (Russia 24 TV channel)
The Porton Down lab carried out illicit human testing and is lying about not producing Novichok (RT)
Skripal’s future mother-in-law did it (Moskovsky Komsomolets: mk.ru)
Terrorists did it (Russian ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson)
American-British financier Bill Browder — blacklisted in Russia for denouncing corruption — did it (Russia 1)
A drone did it (Zvezda and Russian defense ministry)
Skripal was a chemical weapons smuggler (Pravda)
The West is using the case to deflect attention from Russia’s successes in Syria (Russian ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson)
Britain is using the case to deflect attention from Brexit (Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Russian UN ambassador, Russian OSCE ambassador)
The attack was an attempt by a rival faction to undermine Vladimir Putin (state TV)
Russia has destroyed all its stockpiles of Novichok (Sputnik)
Russia never developed Novichok (Interfax)
Only the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Sweden have Novichok (Russian ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson). All three countries have denied the claim.
There is no evidence that the nerve agent used against the Skripals was Novichok, Porton Down lab is struggling to identify the substance (RT)
What A Brave Russian Scientist Told Me About Novichok, The Nerve Agent Identified In The Spy Attack, by Will Englund.
Thanks to the Russian nerve agent “Novichok,” I once got to see the inside of an interrogation room at Lefortovo, the old KGB prison on the east side of Moscow.
It was in 1993. The Russians were not pleased that I had written an article the year before disclosing the existence of Novichok, identified Monday by British investigators as the weapon used last week in the attempted murder of former Soviet spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury.
Full story: