Urgent UN talks on spy poisoning
Legitimate questions must be answered, says Russia
RUSSIA warned Britain yesterday that it could no longer ignore Moscow’s legitimate questions over a spy poisoning scandal, hours ahead of urgent UN Security Council talks on the spiralling diplomatic crisis.
“It will not be possible to ignore the legitimate questions we are asking,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said before the meeting of the council, which is due to discuss the spiralling diplomatic crisis between Russia and the West.
Britain blames Russia for the March 4 poisoning on UK soil of former double agent Sergei Skripal with what it says was a Soviet-made military-grade nerve agent.
The crisis has led to the biggest wave of tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats between Moscow and the West in recent memory.
Yesterday, some 60 US diplomats ordered out of Russia left their embassy compound in Moscow.
Russia had called a meeting of the global chemical watchdog over the Salisbury incident but failed in its bid to join the probe by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Russia then requested the UN Security Council meeting.
Speaking in Moscow, Lavrov called for a substantial and responsible probe and the presentation of evidence, reiterating that Russia was ready for joint work.
At the same time, he alleged the Skripal case had been used by Britain as a pretext, either made up or staged, for the groundless expulsions of Russian diplomats. President Vladimir Putin said on a visit to Ankara on Wednesday that common sense must prevail to avoid “this damage in international relations”.
Moscow was unable to get the required two-thirds of votes from members to approve a joint investigation at Wednesday’s OPCW meeting.
Diplomatic sources said six countries had voted in favour of the Russian draft motion but 15 had been against while 17 abstained, mainly countries from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).
Russia’s UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzia said the meeting in New York would focus on a letter sent by British Prime Minister Theresa May accusing Moscow of carrying out the attempted assassination.
Wednesday’s bid to secure a joint probe saw a day of bitter rhetoric between Moscow and Britain and its western allies. London slammed the idea. “We will not agree to Russia’s demand to conduct a joint investigation into the attack in Salisbury because the UK – supported by many other countries – has assessed that it is highly likely that the Russian state is responsible for this attack,” British chemical arms expert John Foggo told the OPCW’s governing executive council.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson hailed the defeat of Russia’s bid.
“The purpose of Russia’s ludicrous proposal at The Hague was clear – to undermine the independent, impartial work of the international chemical weapons watchdog,” he said, adding Moscow’s main goal was to obscure the truth and confuse the public. Bulgarian ambassador Krassimir Kostov, speaking on behalf of the European Union, said the EU had full confidence in the UK investigation.
Britain is carrying out its own probe, with independent technical assistance from OPCW experts.
Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence, warned on Wednesday that both sides must avoid tensions escalating to the dangerous levels of the Cold War.
Accusations of Moscow engineering the attack were a grotesque provocation crudely concocted by the British and American security services, he said.
He said it was important not to bring matters to a new Cuban missile crisis, referring to the 1962 standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States.
OPCW experts have already taken on-site samples which are being analysed in The Hague, as well as in four other certified laboratories.
The watchdog said it expected the results by early next week.
British expert Foggo told the OPCW meeting Russia was dodging all of London’s questions – and that it had made a series of shameless and preposterous statements.
“Russia’s refusal to accept the results of the OPCW’s investigation unless Russian experts participate in it suggests that Russia is nervous about what the results will show,” he said.
Skripal’s daughter, Yulia Skripal, who was poisoned with him, has phoned her cousin in Russia.
She had said they were both recovering and that she expected to leave hospital soon, Russian state TV and the Interfax news agency reported yesterday. – AFP, Reuters