For weeks, British Prime Minister Theresa May and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson have insisted that there is “no alternative explanation” to Russian government responsibility for the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury last month.
With the world seemingly spiraling deeper into crisis over an alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria and threats of direct conflict with Russia flying from Donald Trump’s Twitter account, Russia’s disarming but stern foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova sat down with the UK’s Sky News for a rare one-on-one interview.
Zakharova spoke in English in the over half an hour exchange, voicing Moscow’s position on US and allied threats of assault on Syria, and the status of ex-double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, whom Russia stands blamed by London of poisoning.
After being hospitalized in a poisoning in Salisbury, UK in early March, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, have been upgraded to a stable condition.
Russia’s embassy in London has sent a list of questions, 14 to be specific, to the British Foreign Ministry on the poisoning of Sergey and Yulia Skripal – which include a demand to clarify whether samples of the nerve agent “Novichok” have ever been developed in the UK.
The Russian embassy’s statement calls the incident that started the recent diplomatic row a “fabricated case against Russia.”
The US and its European allies have coordinated the largest collective expulsion of Russian diplomats in history. Russia has promised to retaliate in kind. Yet despite the sense of certainty around Russian culpability in the Salisbury incident, questions remain around the state of the available evidence.
As contradictory narratives proliferate amidst conflicting Western and Russian government statements and media reports, a clearer picture of the secret history of the nerve agent used in the Salisbury poisonings is emerging.
Maria Zakharova is a powerhouse for the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry. She is the go-to for all matters concerning sanctions against Russia, other accusations and slanderous attacks against Russia and less virulent affairs as well.
Here on video with English subtitles, she clearly, carefully and SANELY lays out the process and rationale for how to solve the matter of the alleged Novichok-utilizing assassination attempt on ex-spy Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
On 15 March, the United Kingdom, together with allies Germany, France and the United States, issued a collective statement regarding the allegation that the assassination attempt on ex-spy Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia were orchestrated by agencies in the Russian Federation:
