While the international row over the poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter on the British soil continues to escalate, the UN Security Council is due to meet for talks on last month’s incident later in the day.
Moscow has called on the UK to jointly conduct a probe into the Salisbury incident, which includes full access to the case’s materials, the ambassador said.
He went on saying that the OPCW has voted against this decision, voted against “transparency”, which are mostly the countries of EU and NATO. At the same time, just few countries have supported the move and 16 have abstained, which means that “they had been pressured.”
The envoy stressed that those abstained are “all Latin America, all Asia and all Africa, with 2 exceptions,” which means that the international community on the whole is not ready to associate itself with the UK.
“The British do not believed that this investigation would be opened,” the ambassador said, referring to the quiz on the Twitter account of the Russian Embassy in London, according to which 68 percent have voted in favor of the move.
Сommenting on UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson statement concerning the origin of the so-called “Novichok” nerve gas, which he claims was made in Russia, the diplomat stated that Moscow has called for giving it samples of the substance. Answering the relevant question, Yakovenko stressed that “we Russia didn’t produce any Novichok,” adding that it has “nothing to do with Russia.”
According to the envoy, quite advanced countries have the capability of producing such weapons, emphasizing that Moscow isn’t pointing fingers at any state, but is just saying that the states have such a possibility.
The ambassador said that when hearing the UK authorities’ statements asking whether Russia had deliberately made the poison or lost control of the substance and claims that Moscow had allegedly failed to respond are “false,” as Moscow sent an official note.
The Russian Federation has repeatedly said that it was “not involved in any way,” Yakovenko emphasized.
“A month has passed since the time when two Russian citizens had been poisoned,” he noted, adding that London refuses to cooperate with Moscow on the case.
“We’re surprised why this cooperation isn’t happening, it reminds me of the Litvinenko case,” Yakovenko said,
“What we hear is just the leaks from the press, every day a new version, every day a new story,” the envoy pointed out.
“Secrecy is all about this story,” he said, noting that Russia is waiting for the visit of Skripal’s niece Victoria to the UK, who is waiting for a British visa. The ambassador has expressed hope that London will isue a visa for her and will help to organize Victoria’s visit to the hospital where the Skripals are being treated.
The British side has blamed Moscow for the incident, with the UK authorities claiming that the toxin used for the poisoning was produced in the Soviet Union. However, on April 3, scientists at the Porton Down chemical weapons laboratory concluded that the toxin used in the Skripal poisoning was a military-grade nerve agent, but they could not precisely determine its source. Russia has denied any involvement in the poisoning and consistently offered assistance to conduct a joint investigation, but has been rejected.