Embassy Statement on the situation with the Russian citizens Sergei and Yulia Skripal
Today marks exactly six months since the Russian citizens Sergei and Yulia Skripal were taken to Salisbury District Hospital under obscure circumstances. Ever since, they have been kept in isolation and under full control of British authorities. They remain out of the public eye at an unknown location, unable to communicate freely with their relatives, friends, journalists or Russian officials, deprived of the freedom of movement. The British authorities have been continuously refusing the Embassy to establish direct contact with the Skripals in order to verify their actual health situation, the conditions in which they are held and, most importantly, to ascertain to which extent their isolation is voluntary.
Thus, the United Kingdom continues to blatantly violate Russia’s lawful right to communicate with its citizens in accordance with Article 36 of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and Article 36 of the 1965 bilateral Consular Convention. Moreover, the de-facto deprivation of liberty of the Skripals is highly questionable from the point of view of observance of their rights confirmed in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1950 Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Days after the incident Russia, offered every kind of assistance to the United Kingdom. We suggested to launch a joint investigation of the incident, we submitted a request for legal assistance in the framework of the criminal case opened in Russia, and we expressed our willingness to cooperate under established OPCW procedures.
Over these months, the Embassy has sent more than 70 Notes Verbales and letters to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Home Office and the Police. We regularly raise the Skripals case during our meetings with FCO officials. We have put dozens of questions concerning the whereabouts of the Russian citizens, symptoms of their poisoning, methods of medical treatment, conduct of the police investigation. We asked to provide samples of the biomaterials and the chemical agent allegedly used, and to present the evidence which could help to establish the truth.
Nearly all of our questions, suggestions and queries have been ignored. Such attitude by the British authorities contradicts every principle of civilized relations between states and amounts to a blatant violation of basic diplomatic courtesy.
As before, Russia intends to vigorously pursue the efforts on establishing the truth on what happened in Salisbury and to demand that the British authorities present all information on the incident, provide access to the Russian citizens and launch a genuinely transparent investigation in cooperation with Russian experts.
Ladies and gentlemen, Today, in addition to the launch ceremony for the TurkStream gas pipeline that you witnessed, President of Russia Vladimir Putin and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan held intensive bilateral talks. They adopted a joint statement following the talks. I would like to highlight several points of this document.
On January 4, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a telephone conversation with Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mohammad Javad Zarif, at the latter’s initiative.
We were concerned to learn of the death of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Commander Major General Qasem Soleimani in a US military strike on Baghdad airport.
We are watching with interest how the US is crossing a landmark line in foreign policy by launching sanctions, which Russia has long become accustomed to, against their own allies. It is exactly what the provisions stipulate in the December 20 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 which contains a section entitled Protecting Europe’s Energy Security.
Question: How would you comment on today's article by Dominic Raab entitled “We couldn’t confront Putin if Corbyn were PM”? Answer: In the heat of the election campaign we wouldn’t want to comment on ideas of what would happen if a certain politician came to lead the government. We would just like to mention that this is another example of short-term exploitation of the fictional “Russian threat”. We realise that this is done in the run-up to the elections as well as the NATO summit in London. Yet such publications are not helpful for Russian-British relations as a whole.
The V Russian-British Business Forum is taking place in London on November 27, organized by the Russian Embassy and the Russian Trade Delegation to the United Kingdom with support by the Roscongress Foundation, the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce and a number of Russian and British companies. The event is traditionally held as part of the Eastern Seasons, a week of Russia-related business, cultural and sports events.
On 21 November 2019 the newly appointed Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the UK, Andrei Kelin, arrived in London. On 22 November, His Excellency has submitted the copy of his credentials to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and officially assumed his duties.
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