Putin's Russia and Britain trade barbs at chemical arms watchdog

Foreign Intelligence Service head Sergei Naryshkin warned against escalating tensions to Cold War levels. [Alexander, AFP]

Russia and Britain faced off Wednesday trading accusations at a tense meeting of the world's chemical weapons watchdog, as Moscow accused British and US secret services of being behind the poisoning of a Russian former double agent.

London slammed as "perverse" a Russian proposal for a joint probe into the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a nerve agent, dismissing it as a "diversionary tactic".