Poisoned Russians and Alice in Wonderland

NEW YORK/ LONDON: The British government says two guinea pigs and a cat were victims of the Salisbury poisoning of a former Russian spy.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the guinea pigs were found dead at the home of Sergei Skripal after it was sealed off for investigations.

The former Russian spy and his daughter, Yulia, have been in hospital since they were found unconscious on a park bench on March 4.

British authorities say they were exposed to a military-grade nerve agent and have blamed Russia.

Russia vehemently denies responsibility.

The attack has had major diplomatic ramifications, with mass expulsions of Russian and Western diplomats.

“We have told our British colleagues that ‘You’re playing with fire and you’ll be sorry’,” Russian UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said during a more than 30-minute speech at a meeting on Thursday of the 15-member UN Security Council.

British police believe a nerve agent was left on the front door of the Salisbury home where Skripal lived after he was freed in a spy swop. He was a military intelligence colonel who betrayed dozens of Russian agents to Britain’s MI6 spy service.

“We believe that the UK’s actions stand up to any scrutiny,” British UN ambassador Karen Pierce told the Security Council. “We have nothing to hide… but I do fear that Russia might have something to fear.”

At the global chemical weapons watchdog on Wednesday, Russia called for a joint inquiry into the poisoning of the Skripals, but lost a vote on the measure.

“Allowing Russian scientists into an investigation where they are the most likely perpetrators of the crime in Salisbury would be like Scotland Yard inviting in Professor Moriarty,” Pierce told reporters earlier on Thursday.

At the end of the UN Security Council meeting, Nebenzia read a passage from Lewis Carroll’s book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, about a trial where the queen demands the sentence first and the verdict afterwards. “Does that remind you of anything?” he added.

Pierce responded: “There is another very good quote from Alice in Wonderland which is ‘Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast’, so I think that’s the quote that suits my Russian colleague best.” – Reuters-AP/African News Agency (ANA)

PICTURE: SUPPLIED Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who were also poisoned last month.