Foreign Ministry statement on the Salisbury incident
The British authorities have demonstrated their inability to ensure the safety of Russian citizens more than once. The glaring examples include the poisoning of former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko, the death of businessmen Badri Patarkatsishvili and Alexander Perepelichny under unclear circumstances, the mysterious “suicide” of Boris Berezovsky and the strangling of Berezovsky’s business partner Nikolai Glushkov, and lastly, the recent attempt on the lives and health of Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
In the latter case, London acted contrary to all the norms of international law, ethics and even common sense. London has accused Russia of poisoning Russian citizens without providing any evidence or the complete picture of the crime. At the same time, it has provided the alleged name of the toxic agent, which has never been used in Russia, and has launched a large-scale political and media campaign against Russia. It has initiated the campaign to expel Russian diplomats from a number of countries and representative offices at international organisations and has announced a package of other sanctions. Meanwhile, it has completely disregarded our legitimate requests to share the samples of the alleged toxic agent.
On March 16, 2018, Russia’s Investigative Committee initiated criminal proceedings regarding the attempted murder of Russian citizen Yulia Skripal and submitted a relevant request to the British side. We expect London to cooperate with us within the framework of the investigation that has been launched by the Russian legal authorities.
The actions of the British authorities raise many questions. The British public is being kept in the dark regarding the key elements of this incident, which has been described as extremely dangerous, and the number of the people affected is kept secret. No information has been provided about the activities of Britain’s secret research facility in Porton Down near Salisbury, where chemical research was conducted. No information has been provided about Operation Toxic Dagger, an annual chemical warfare exercise conducted at the Porton Down facility together with the UK military, which was completed shortly before the Skripals’ poisoning.
Meanwhile, London has initiated a worldwide campaign to spread the presumption of Russia’s guilt. We see a deliberate and purposeful escalation of confrontation and a demonstration of military force on Russia’s border. It is an obvious effort to undermine the political and diplomatic interaction that could lead to an objective and comprehensive investigation of the Salisbury incident.
The analysis of all these circumstances shows that the UK authorities are not interested in identifying the real causes and the real perpetrators of the crime in Salisbury, which suggests a possible involvement of the UK intelligence services. Unless we receive convincing proof of the opposite, we will regard this incident as an attempt on the life of Russian citizens as part of a large-scale political provocation. We emphasise that the burden of proof rests solely on the UK.
We have taken note of the statement by the Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, congratulating Volodymyr Zelenskiy on being elected President of Ukraine. In his statement Mr Hunt said the UK interest in supporting Ukraine was due to the country’s position “on the front-line of Russia’s challenge to the rules-based international system”. The Foreign Secretary also mentioned that Ukraine’s “stability is essential for Europe’s security”. “Cooperation on defence and security” was identified as the first among the areas of future cooperation between London and Kiev.
Novgorod, is one of the oldest cities in Russia with population around 230 thousand people. The Sofia First Chronicle makes initial mention of the city in 859, when it was already a major Baltics-to-Byzantium station on the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks. Novgorod is also traditionally considered to be the cradle of Russian statehood.
Question: How would you comment on the New York Times report, reprinted by British media, alleging that CIA Director Gina Haspel persuaded President Trump to take strong measures against Russia following the Salisbury incident by showing him photos of children exposed to chemical poisoning and those of ducks killed by nerve agent? Answer: As everyone else, we learned of the existence of such photos from the New York Times piece. The information on hospitalised children and killed ducks is surprising. The British authorities and media have indeed reported that some members of the public, including children, underwent medical checks as a precautionary measure. However, none of them had any signs of poisoning. Similarly, it has never been reported that ducks or any other animals were killed (apart from Mr Skripal’s pets, incinerated in the Porton Down laboratory for unknown reasons).
Question: How could you comment on the Report of the House of Commons Defence Committee, which blames Russia for the collapse of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty?
President Putin sent a message to President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron personally expressing sympathy to the French leader and the entire French nation over the tragic aftermath of the fire at Notre Dame de Paris.
Question: According to reports, Duchess of Abercorn, who served as Russia’s Honorary Consul in Northern Ireland, deceased in December 2018. Are there any plans to appoint a new honorary consul in that region? Answer: The issue of appointing a new Honorary Consul in Northern Ireland, where neither the Embassy in London nor the Consulate General in Edinburgh can effectively exercise consular functions due to objective geographical reasons, is under consideration.
We noted a Twitter post of April 10 by UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, stating that it’s been over a year since Russia used the lethal Novichok agent in Salisbury, yet London hears nothing but denials from Russia, which allegedly objected to Novichok being added to the list of substances controlled by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). It gets more cynical as you read on: “If they love Novichok so much, other countries will rightly worry about the next Salisbury.”
More than a year has passed since former Deputy Director General of Aeroflot Nikolay Glushkov, a national of the Russian Federation, mysteriously died in London. One would argue that the investigators have had plenty of time to present their lines of inquiry. However, the crime continues to be passed over in silence by law enforcement officials, politicians and the media.
Just now, we watched online as the British police detained WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. We noted that the operation was conducted in the office of the Ecuadorian diplomatic mission with the embassy’s approval. Judging from the format of the operation, a blatant and brutal neglect of the detainee’s human dignity took place. We hope that all Julian Assange’s rights will be observed.
We are both surprised and not at the convening of an emergency meeting on Venezuela, all the more with participation of the Vice-President of the United States, whom you are always glad to welcome in this room. It is a pity he did not want to listen to other Members of the Council share their views on the situation in Venezuela. Today we watch just another act in a multi-act drama that attempts to change the regime in Venezuela. The situation in Venezuela does not pose a threat to international peace and security, whereas external actors pose a direct threat to peace and security inside Venezuela. This is what we have just heard.
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