DISINFO: The Skripal case used against Russia to divert attention from NATO's failure in Afghanistan
SUMMARY
The recent accusation against a third Russian for involvement in the Skripal case is a pretext to hide NATO's responsibility for its embarrassing withdrawal from Afghanistan.
RESPONSE
This story is part of a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative, aiming to deflect any Russian responsibility for the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the British city of Salisbury on 4 March 2018.
Contrary to the claims, the people who carried out the poisoning were identified beyond any doubt as operatives of Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU) Anatoly Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin. On 21 September 2021, the British authorities publicly identified a third man who helped in the operation as GRU officer Denis Sergeev. Evidence includes footage from surveillance cameras, Russian military files and UK phone records.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives in our database, such as claims that London failed to provide proof of Novichok and Russia’s responsibility in Skripal’s case, that the alleged poisonings of Skripal and Navalny were Western provocations against Russia, that stories connecting the Skripal poisoning to Russia are pure speculation, that Russia already destroyed its chemical stockpile while the US didn’t, that the OPCW has a policy of throwing baseless accusations, or that it is unclear who really poisoned Sergey and Yulia Skripal.