Britain has accused Moscow of running an assassination program to eliminate its enemies, while Russia said Britain may itself have orchestrated the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in England.
The attack in Salisbury, England, has plunged ties between London and Moscow into their worst crisis since the Cold War.
Britain has blamed Russia for the attack - something Moscow denies - and both have expelled diplomats in the standoff.
"Nobody understands what happened in Salisbury," Vladimir Yermakov, a Russian diplomat said at a Russian foreign ministry event on Wednesday. "Let's investigate what really happened."
His own view, he said, was that the poisoning had been a pre-planned action designed to harm Russia.
Emma Nottingham, a British diplomat, countered that London had concluded it was "highly likely" that Moscow stood behind the attempted assassination of the Skripals for four reasons.
"The identification of the chemical agent by our world leading scientists, our knowledge that Russia has previously produced this agent ... Russia's record in conducting state-sponsored assassinations ... and our assessment that Russia views defectors as legitimate targets."
US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated solidarity with Britain in a telephone call on Wednesday and "agreed on the need to take action to hold Russia accountable", the White House said.
Skripal, a former colonel in Russian GRU military intelligence who betrayed dozens of Russian agents to British intelligence, and his daughter Yulia have been critically ill since March 4, when they were found unconscious.
Britain says a military-grade nerve agent called Novichok, first developed by the Soviet Union, was used in the attack.
Nottingham said Russia had failed to explain how the nerve agent used in the attack had got from Russia to England and why it was running an illegal chemical weapons program.
"Instead, what we've seen is a barrage of distortion and disinformation ... and attempts to confuse the facts."
Yermakov said Russia did not understand what was going in British officials' heads. Talk of the Novichok nerve agent was like something out of a British TV series, he said.
"Aren't you ashamed of yourself ?," Yermakov asked Nottingham. "Pull yourselves away a little bit from your Russophobia and your island mentality."
He said Moscow had nothing to do with the tragedy and wanted a wider investigation.
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