“In my personal opinion, I’m absolutely sure Sergei Skripal was poisoned by the British or American secret services”.
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In addition to ejecting 23 Russian diplomats who she accused of spying in Britain, she also cut bilateral ties and threatened further action against rich Russians in the UK. Moscow did not address the matter before the deadline.
Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain in critical but stable condition after being discovered slumped on a bench in Salisbury in early March.
He had previously said Russian Federation had no motive to target Skripal, but suggested others could use the poisoning to “complicate” the World Cup. Putin’s seeds of division have not taken root, and it is Russian Federation that looks increasingly adrift in a week of strained diplomatic tensions.
Boris Johnson has called for Britain’s allies to support its stand against Russian Federation as the United Kingdom braced for retaliation for expelling Kremlin diplomats en masse.
Meanwhile the Investigative Committee, which reports to Putin, opened a probe into the “attempted premeditated murder” of Skripal’s daughter, a Russian national, which it said had been “carried out in a way that was unsafe to the public”. The comments also came after a deadline, set by Britain for an “explanation” from Russian Federation as to why Novichok – a military-grade nerve agent developed by Russian Federation – had come to be used in the Salisbury poisoning, passed.
1 NEWS has more interesting details about the double agent’s life.
The Russian embassy in London said the expulsion of diplomats was “totally unacceptable, unjustified and shortsighted”.
The statement follows a midnight deadline Wednesday for Russian Federation to answer the accusations, imposed by British Prime Minister Theresa May.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson speaks to media during a visit to a Battle of Britain bunker in Uxbridge on 16 March 2018.
Russia’s envoy at the OPCW has claimed the substance used could have come from either USA or British stockpiles.
But he was quoted by others as saying that Russian Federation would inform British authorities first before any media announcement.
“There does not seem to be any real appetite so far to investigate the ill-gotten gains of the Russian elite that have been laundered through London”, said John Lough, an associate fellow in the Eurasia program at the Chatham House think-tank.
She had given Russian Federation a deadline of last Tuesday evening to explain the use of the nerve agent.
The Kremlin is taking its time to develop a “considered” response to British sanctions, the presidential press-secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
Britain said it was not enough though, and in 2016, a judge-led inquiry concluded that Putin had probably approved Litvinenko’s murder, something Moscow denies.
Labour former minister Chris Bryant said: “Can we just stop Russia Today just broadcasting its propaganda in this country?”
He said: “There is a reason for choosing Novichok”.
Diplomats say Macron believes ostracizing Moscow will not yield results given its importance on the world stage and role in world crises.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told The Associated Press that the Salisbury attack is a direct challenge to Europe that will likely be discussed at an European Union ministers’ meeting Monday in Brussels.
The joint statement Thursday came a day after U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the U.N. Security Council Wednesday that Moscow was behind the attack.
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“We demand material proof of the alleged Russian nerve agent traces from this event”.
