DISINFO: The UK is using the Skripal case again to promote Russophobia
SUMMARY
For more than two years, the UK authorities have been using the Salisbury incident to deliberately complicate bilateral relations with Russia. UK leaders continue to use the Skripal case as an instrument of pressure on Russia, promoting anti-Russian sentiments in British society, recreating all this Russophobic concept that is later lowered into the media. They have not returned to that topic for a long time. Maybe it came up again now because this is how the British are preparing for the meeting of their minister with his Russian counterpart. Despite numerous calls from the Russian side and their proposals to hold a responsible dialogue, London continues to reject a concrete discussion and a joint investigation of this incident, which harmed Russian citizens. It is time to tell the truth to the international community.
RESPONSE
This is part of a long-term pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign, 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. Accusing of “Russophobia” those who call out Russia’s illicit actions is a frequent pro-Kremlin disinformation technique.
See here the EU statement on the Salisbury attack.
Contrary to claims made in this disinformation message rejecting Russia’s blame and calling to “clarify the truth”, 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, 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.