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DISINFO: Skripal case is crumbling due to the lack of evidence

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

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Anti-Russian novichok Skripal Sergei Skripal Chemical weapons/attack Sergei Lavrov

DISINFO: Skripal case is crumbling due to the lack of evidence

SUMMARY

The Skripal case is crumbling before our eyes due to the lack of any evidence of Russia's involvement.

RESPONSE

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury claiming that the United Kingdom was never able to provide detailed evidence of Russia’s involvement.

Moscow's involvement in the poisoning has been proven via a thorough investigation. The British Police have presented a solid chain of evidence on the Skripal case, with pictures, connecting the suspects to the locations in the case. Parts of the material have been released to the public.

The evidence was sufficient to charge two Russian nationals, Anatoliy Chepiga and Aleksandr Mishkin with the attack on the Skripals, both Russian military intelligence operatives from the GRU, who travelled to the UK using fake names and documents.

Following this attack, the United Kingdom notified the OPCW, invited them to confirm the identity of the substance involved, and briefed members of the Security Council.

The OPCW’s independent expert laboratories confirmed the UK’s identification of the Russian produced Novichok nerve agent, specifically the purity of the toxin while emphasising that the OPCW team “worked independently and was not involved in the national investigation by the UK authorities. No State Party was involved in the technical work carried out by the Technical Secretariat," to ensure the integrity of the examinations and investigations.

According to the UK intelligence assessment, based on open-source analysis and intelligence information, in the past decade, Russia has produced and stockpiled small quantities of Novichok agents, long after it signed the Chemical Weapons Convention. Novichok was developed in Russia in the 1970s and 1980s. It is so unusual, that very few scientists outside of Russia have any real experience in dealing with it and no country outside of Russia is known to have developed the substance. See reports here and here.

In September 2021, the UK has announced that they identified a third suspect, Denis Sergeev, also known as Sergey Fedotov. Sergeev is believed to have been the on-the-ground commander of Chepiga and Mishkin. Earlier, Bellingcat has also identified him as one of the GRU officers present in the UK during the Salisbury poisonings.

See here the EU statement on the Salisbury attack.

See similar cases claiming that there was no evidence of Russia's involvement in the poisoning of Skripals and that Russia is accused of US election meddling and the Skripals’ poisoning without proof.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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