The Russian embassy in London called “speculations” another piece of information about the “suspect” in the case of poisoning of ex-Colonel Sergei GRIPAL and his daughter Julia in Salisbury.
“As the British Foreign Office advises us, such publications and speeches should be treated as a manifestation of freedom of public debate, in which the government does not interfere. Already there were reports that the British Ministry of Internal Affairs and the London police do not intend to comment on these "speculations." I think this is the case when it is necessary to follow the example of British colleagues, ”said the spokesman for the Russian diplomatic mission.
He added that the Russian side will be ready to discuss this and any other information through official channels with London.
“If the case will continue to be limited to leaks in the media with references to anonymous or investigations by public organizations (even when they are clearly associated with special services), this will only confirm the investigation’s lack of intention to work in the international legal plane,” the embassy official concluded RF.
On Monday, October 8, the initiative group of British bloggers Bellingcat, together with The Insider, once again provided information that supposedly should prove Russia's involvement in the incident with Skripale poisoning.
This time, Bellingcat stated that he allegedly revealed the real name of Alexander Petrov, whom Scotland Yard considers one of the suspects in the Skripale case. Allegedly, he is a kind of Alexander Evgenievich Mishkin, who graduated from one of the elite military medical academies, after which he was recruited by the GRU (since 2010, the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. - RT ). In addition, several years ago he received the title of Hero of Russia.
At the same time, Bellingcat reported that they received this information from “people who know him”, as well as from “open sources”. Previously, in a similar way, “information” was obtained that Ruslan Boshirov is allegedly “an employee of the GRU and Hero of Russia Anatoly Chepiga”.
Note that the London police declined to comment in connection with the “media assumptions about their personalities.”
"Spreading fake news"
Meanwhile, Moscow was reminded that the Russian side has repeatedly appealed to London with a proposal to jointly conduct an investigation. As noted by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Oleg Syromolotov, any allegations must be based on facts.
“In this situation, I appreciate it as the spread of fake news. There is no evidence ... Besides, how does Russia care about Skrypal and so on? The UK would have thought better about the consequences of the Brexit’s difficulties, ”RIA Novosti quotes a diplomat.
At the same time, the Kremlin reported that, as before, they are not going to conduct “discussions with the media and public organizations” in the case of poisoning the ex-colonel of the GRU in England.
“We cannot and do not want to handle information that comes through the media. Moreover, we will no longer go into any explanations, explanations or comments on the topics that are being thrown into the media, ”said Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president.
According to him, the Russian side initially requested from the British "information about the nature, circumstances of this case and any other details." “No information has been provided through official channels and has not been provided so far,” he concluded.
We add that last week the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia received from the UK an official refusal on a request for legal assistance in the investigation.
"London fears the position of the Skrip himself"
According to Stanislav Byshok, a political analyst at the international monitoring organization of the CIS-EMO, we can talk about the obvious connection between Bellingcat and the British special services. According to the expert, London needed to respond to the interview given by Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov to RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan.
“The matter would be resolved if Skripal himself appeared and said what he thinks about this. Another thing is that he, most likely, will not be released to the press. After all, Skripal, who does not seem to really believe the data that the United Kingdom provides him, can say what he thinks. And what he thinks may not coincide with what his new homeland says, ”said Byshok RT.
In his opinion, the information war against Moscow is necessary in order to support anti-Russian sanctions, and therefore the confrontation will continue - there will be various stories related to Violinists, hackers and “interference in internal affairs”.
Emerging reports of the incident in Salisbury are not of great importance for the Russian side, since London does not conduct an investigation, but conducts a propaganda campaign. This statement was made by Professor of the Department of Comparative Political Science, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of RUDN University Yury Pochta.
“We don’t see a real event - we didn’t participate in studying the scene of the incident, we don’t see the victims - as if they were and as if not. We do not know whether these people are alive or not. How the British media and officials interpret the alleged participation of Russia is an arrogant language and disregard for our country. We see that this is not an investigation of a real event, but a propaganda campaign, ”he said.
According to the expert, the case of Skripale can be relegated to the background if some other reason for bringing new charges against Russia appears.
“Unfortunately, the current level of our relations with Great Britain leaves much to be desired. There is no desire to develop relations, but there is a desire to continue the policy of containing Russia as a competitor, as a serious participant in world politics, which Britain and its allies do not want to allow, ”the Post said in an interview with RT.