Former Russian
military intelligence Colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia suffered
the effects of an alleged nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury on March
4
SVETLOGORSK
/Kaliningrad region/, August 15. /TASS/. Moscow will continue demanding that
facts concerning the poisonings in Salisbury and Amesbury be presented until
London and Washington admit that both the incidents are just a huge
provocation, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told
participants in the Balartek international educational youth forum taking place
in Russia’s Kaliningrad region.
"We will give
clear and professional responses to provocations such as those that took place
in Salisbury and Amesbury, we will present facts demanding information in
return," Zakharova stressed. "We will work to bring these things to a
conclusion until the United States and Great Britain admit that it is a huge
provocation," she added.
According to
Zakharova, it was not the first time that Washington and London staged such a provocation
together. "This story mostly consists of provocative steps," she
said, adding that "we don’t know what was the reason behind this chain of
events because it all has been classified."
"However, the
fact that the blame is being put on Russia leaves no room for doubt," the
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman noted. "Great Britain and the United
States have been using scam techniques to carry out a large-scale
disinformation campaign. It is unacceptable and I would like to hope that our
country will never stoop so low as to start inventing provocations,"
Zakharova concluded.
British poisonings
According to London,
former Russian military intelligence (GRU) Colonel Sergei Skripal, who had been
convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain and later swapped for Russian
intelligence officers, and his daughter Yulia suffered the effects of an alleged
nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury on March 4. Claiming that the
substance used in the attack had been a Novichok-class nerve agent developed in
the Soviet Union, London rushed to accuse Russia of being involved in the
incident. Moscow rejected all of the United Kingdom’s accusations. Chief
Executive of the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton
Down Gary Aitkenhead said later that British experts had been unable to
identify the origin of the nerve agent used in the attack on the Skripals.
Russia’s
Investigative Committee launched a criminal case over the incident on March 16.
On June 30,
44-year-old Dawn Sturgess and 45-year-old Charles Rowley were hospitalized in
critical condition in the British town of Amesbury. The Metropolitan Police
went on to claim that the two had been exposed to Novichok, the same nerve
agent that was allegedly used in the Skripal poisoning. After being
mysteriously exposed to a nerve agent and falling into a coma, Sturgess died on
July 8 while Rowley managed to recover.
Bron: ITAR-TASS
15-08-2018
