"They expect to switch attention": Russia evaluated the investigation into the case of Skripale on the anniversary of the incident in Salisbury

The British authorities made it clear that they would not allow Russian diplomats to meet with Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. About this on the air of the "First Channel", said Russian Ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko.

According to him, the British side does not respond to official requests from the Russian Embassy for the state of health of Skripale, the last such document was sent a few weeks ago.

“But I had meetings in the Foreign Office, I met with very well-known people who are responsible for security, and they unofficially made it clear to me that“ you will never see Skripale, ”Yakovenko said.

The diplomat suggested that the outcome of the investigation of the British side would be classified, and later London would report that "Russia did not give an opportunity to discuss this topic at the level of specialists."

“Although I have to emphasize: we have not received any calls for legal assistance from the British,” the ambassador said. According to him, in the UK they are not interested in any contacts with representatives of Russia on the investigation of the poisoning in Salisbury.

Yakovenko concluded that Moscow would continue to exert political pressure on London in order to understand what happened in Salisbury. At the same time, the diplomat suggested that the number of “attacks on Russia” would increase.

"Obstacles to the functioning of the diplomatic mission"

Recall, on March 4, 2018, the ex-Colonel of the GRU Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious near the house in the British city of Salisbury. Britain laid the responsibility for the incident on Russia, but London did not provide evidence.

On the eve of the British edition of The Mail on Sunday, published an "investigation" in which it states that diplomat Alexander Yakovenko allegedly was an agent of Soviet intelligence in the 1980s. Based on these materials, members of the British Parliament appealed to the Foreign Ministry of their country with a request to study the "findings" of journalists.

• Guard at the Russian Embassy in London, March 19, 2018
• Reuters
• © Henry Nicholls

The Russian embassy in London called these publications a “well-timed” attack. Yakovenko himself demanded an apology for libel from the editor-in-chief of Mail on Sunday.

On March 4, the Russian diplomatic mission stated that the British media were conducting a targeted campaign against the Russian embassy and created obstacles to its work.

“The only goal pursued by the current campaign is to make the embassy“ toxic ”, to limit its activities, to create obstacles to the normal functioning of the embassy. The anniversary of the events in Salisbury is just a convenient excuse for such actions, ”RIA Novosti reports the press secretary of the diplomatic mission.

It is noted that similar information campaigns in Britain have been observed before, and all of them were timed to certain events.

“A year has passed since the incident with Russian citizens Sergey and Yulia Skripal, however, the British authorities still cannot clearly explain what happened there in reality,” the embassy said.

“In order to divert public attention from obvious inconsistencies in this matter, and from the unsuccessfully evolving Brexit talks, the establishment and the press had to slip into new attacks against the embassy and the ambassador personally,” the report said

The embassy noted the “surprising synchronization” of the publication of materials in time with links to certain “sources” that are not confirmed.

• The emergency services in protective suits near the bench, near which they found Sergei and Julia Skripal
• Reuters
• © Henry Nicholls

On the anniversary of the incident in Salisbury, British Prime Minister Teresa May visited the city. According to Sky News, she called the date "an important milestone" of the process in which the city "comes out of the shadow cast by the use of chemical weapons."

“The Incident in Salisbury” is a trick. ”

At the Russian Foreign Ministry, events in Salisbury were called the "trick" of the British government. The statement by the ministry notes that at present one can observe the “comedy of the absurd as the constant background of the investigation of the“ incident ”, as well as the“ deep creeping erosion of the basic international mechanisms for controlling chemical weapons ”.

“There are tragic consequences: one person died (although the circumstances of this death are still shrouded in mystery), the fate of two Russian citizens is not known,” the report says.

The Office noted that the British side ignored repeated proposals by the Russian side for constructive cooperation in the investigation, “making a bet on aggressive rhetoric that goes beyond the limits of decency”. Diplomats indicated that each state is looking for its own “saving straw”.

“In Anglo-Saxon political discourse, for example, this concept turned out to be a much less poetic designation -“ dead cat, ”the report underlines.

According to diplomats, this idiom in the modern British political lexicon was introduced by former British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

“You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes, the genius of deduction, to draw elementary parallels: Brexit is the very argument, the“ headache ”of the May government; The country's population is more and more immersed in the essence of disputes between Brussels and London, making its own conclusions about the effectiveness of the work of the current cabinet ministers. The clouds are gathering, "- said in a message on Facebook.

• Emergency staff in protective suits
• Reuters
• © Peter Nicholls

The Foreign Ministry stressed that the British authorities "are hoping to at least divert the attention of their own citizens from unpleasant themes for themselves, to consolidate the nation in the face of the" ominous Russian threat. "

It is quite expected that Russian diplomats will continue to increase their efforts to shed light on the circumstances of the incident, said Alexey Martynov, director of the International Institute of the Newest States.

“Despite the fact that Skripal Sr. received the citizenship of Her Majesty, he did not lose Russian citizenship, as did his daughter. And, of course, Russian diplomats will try to clarify their fate, ”said the expert in an interview with RT.

According to him, this is necessary, including for relatives in Russia and for understanding how Western special services are acting with Russian citizens "in the interests of their provocations against Russia."

Vladimir Olenchenko, a senior researcher at the Center for European Studies at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, believes that the key factor is Skripale’s awareness of what happened.

"The key point here is Skripal himself and his daughter, who, apparently, can tell what actually happened to them and how they were treated in the future and where they are ... Apparently, they are unprofitable for the British information, and they are not are interested in her getting publicly publicized, ”the expert told RT.

He stressed that diplomats should have the right to meet with a citizen of their country.

"The consular authorities find out how free the Russian citizen is in his movements, circumstances, the answers to these questions, which Skripal and his daughter can give hypothetically, are probably not very profitable for the UK," concluded Olenchenko.