MOSCOW - Moscow police said they did chemical tests at the office of the BP oil company Tuesday after employees reported what was termed suspicious mail.
In London, BP spokesman Tony Odone said all BP staff members were well and none were made ill.
The Interfax news agency said police were called to the BP office when employees suffered headaches, rashes and felt a stinging in their eye after handling mail that arrived from Houston, Texas.
The Emergency Situations Ministry said there had been one report of a worker made sick, but that the employee now felt well.
Odone said the company's Moscow office had received a parcel from Houston "which had a substance on the outside of the package which is now being tested by the authorities.
"We are now waiting for the results," spokesman Toby Odone said. He didn't specify what the substance was or what it looked like.
Police experts were testing the air and the mail for chemicals, but found no powder or liquid inside the envelopes, Moscow police spokesman Pavel Klimovsky told The Associated Press.
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW - Russia is in the midst of a strategic military exercise aimed at increasing the efficiency of its nuclear deterrent and ability to penetrate missile defenses, a top general said Tuesday.
The exercise, which began in late January on the headquarters level, will later involve the launch of an unspecified number of sea- and ground-based ballistic missiles and flights by strategic bombers, said Col.-Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, the first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces.
He dismissed media reports that strategic bombers would test-fire missiles over the north Atlantic but refused to comment on their flight routes.
The exercise will help develop weapons systems "capable of providing an asymmetric answer to existing and prospective weapons systems, including missile defense," Baluyevsky said at a news conference.
He dismissed media allegations that the planned exercise would closely resemble Soviet-era simulations of an all-out nuclear war with the United States, saying that it's not directed against any specific country.
"The enemy is imaginary," Baluyevsky said at a news conference. "There is no hint whatsoever that the enemy is the United States, or any other country. The United States holds a similar exercise each year and no one is making a fuss about it."
At the same time, Baluyevsky reaffirmed Russia's concern about the development of low-yield nuclear weapons in the United States, saying it destabilizes the world. He said that the Russian maneuver was a reaction to that, but added that "it's not saber-rattling."
He said the exercise was being conducted "taking into account the changes of military and other threats in the world."
He said that test-firing of ballistic missiles during the exercise was part of efforts to extend their lifetime.
Baluyevsky also dismissed media claims that the exercise was a political show aimed at bolstering President Vladimir Putin's popularity in the run-up to the March 14 presidential election, which he is expected to easily win.
"This is neither the opening of the election campaign nor a demonstration of our nuclear fist to the entire world," Baluyevsky said.
Moscow informed the U.S. government in advance of the exercise, in keeping with its arms control treaty obligations, Baluyevsky said.