Mubasher: Russian foreign ministry on Monday said that allegations of Moscow’s involvement in the poisoning of a former Russian double agent, were groundless.

“We see the groundless allegations of Russia’s involvement in the Salisbury incident as another attempt to paint our country as a state which approaches its international obligations in an irresponsible fashion,” the ministry said in a statement.

The statement came after Washington on Wednesday said it would impose sanctions on Moscow by the end of August, after establishing that the Kremlin had poisoned the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK town of Salisbury.