DISINFO: Skripal case is fabricated, the UK is trying to hide its own crimes
SUMMARY
The Skripals story raises questions not to the Russian, but to the British authorities. In an effort to cover up their crimes - or criminal mistakes - the country's leadership commissioned Bellingcat with a disinformation campaign against Russia and began destroying evidence at breakneck speed. Skripal's house was dismantled brick by brick. For some reason, their cat was killed also.
The British government has not yet presented any evidence, rejected numerous proposals from the Russian authorities to conduct examinations, did not allow Russian diplomats to meet with the Skripals, in general, and violated all the norms of international investigation accepted in a civilized society. It is high time for the British government to answer to the international community for the Skripals case. And of course, for the cat.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in 2018.
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.
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.
On 21 September 2021 Counter Terrorism Policing confirmed that charges have been authorised against a third person in relation to the ongoing investigation into the Salisbury Novichok attack. A third man known as ‘Sergey Fedotov’ was identified and evidence relating to this individual was presented to the Crown Prosecution Service. Evidences include footage from surveillance cameras, Russian military files and UK phone records.
All three men – ‘Sergey Fedotov’, ‘Alexander Petrov’ and ‘Ruslan Boshirov’(Anatoliy Chepiga and Aleksandr Mishkin) – are now wanted by UK police and arrest warrants are in place for all three.
Read How Bellingcat uncovered Russia’s secret network of assassins by Eliot Higgins, the founder of Bellingcat.
Read further debunking by The Insider.
See here the EU statement on the Salisbury attack.