Envoy ridiculed for Skripal theory Britain
The Russian ambassador to London was described as Comical Ali yesterday after he suggested that British agents poisoned Sergei and Yulia Skripal to frame Moscow.
Alexander Yakovenko was ridiculed by MPs and compared to Saddam Hussein’s deluded spokesman at a meeting of the allparty parliamentary group on Russia.
‘‘The British side was trying to influence the western world against Russia,’’ Yakovenko said. ‘‘The people don’t buy this kind of policy. In order to get their support something extraordinary needed to be done in order to make people believe that this is the Russians who did this.’’
Chris Bryant, Labour chairman of the group, said: ‘‘I’m not a Conservative, but I don’t think it’s in a Conservative government’s interest to start murdering Russian people, who come over to Britain and spy for us, in Salisbury.’’
He accused Russia of having acted like a ‘‘bully with territorial ambitions’’ over its annexation of Crimea. The ambassador said: ‘‘You believe that we annexed Crimea, we believe there was a coup.’’
Bryant said: ‘‘No you don’t.’’ He also said that Moscow’s military policies risked starting a bigger conflict with the West. ‘‘You fly over British naval ships regu- larly without any notice in military aircraft,’’ Bryant said. A new Cold War could escalate into a ‘‘real live war’’, Bryant said, after failed ‘‘deconfliction’’ policies in Syria.
Bob Seely, a Conservative, told the ambassador: ‘‘People treat you like they treated Comical Ali in Iraq – someone who is great entertainment value who relies on conspiracy theories.’’
Comical Ali, real name Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, attracted ridicule for making outlandish claims at press briefings during the Iraq war. He declared that ‘‘infidels’’ were facing ‘‘slaughter’’ even as US tanks rolled into Baghdad.