It is hardly novichok. But, Britain and Russia are today embroiled in a new poisoning row. And it all started with a gripe about chlorine levels in a Glasgow municipal swimming pool.

This weekend, Russia's synchro team swept aside allcomers to dominate at Scotstoun leisure centre in the European Championships. But its coach was not happy. Two of her swimmers came out of the pool with red eyes. There was too much chlorine in the water, she said.

"This is some kind of nightmare," Tatiana Pokrovskaya told the state news agency Tass. "The girls' eyesight is ruined. They did half of their routine blind. Is this any way to treat sportswomen?"

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Competitor Maria Shurochkina complained to Reuters.  “Do you see me? I have these red eyes. The conditions are awful because of the chlorine.”

Her team mate Polina Komar added: “It was too much chlorine. Much more than yesterday. I could not see the team, all I could see was white.”

Glasgow Times:

Cue an investigation. Organisers, understands our sister title The Herald, found levels of chlorine to be within acceptable limits. 

But that was not the end of the matter. Russia's biggest sports news portal, Chempionat, quizzed Ms Pokrovskaya about the incident.

"It was a purely political decision," she told the site, in remarks interpreted as an accusation of deliberate poisoning because of competitive envy. "We'll give the medal to another country. And at the same time they are always telling us: 'there you go, it's always the Russians, always the Russians'."

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Chempionat ran a headline about "poisoning," declaring: "British use chlorine against Russian swimmers".

Its report read: "There was an attempt to 'poison' Russian synchro swimmers out of the competition. And in this case that phrase has to be taken literally. "

Other online outlets have picked up the remarks. At least one referring to them as "hysterical". Russian synchro swimmers also complained about the water at the 2016 Rio Olympics, saying it was "cold and murky".

Glasgow City Council has handed over control of the pool to organisers with insiders dismissing any suggestion of foul play.