Makes no sense that Russia did it

Sir, – Assuming, as I do, that intelligence agents are of aboveaverage intelligence, I cannot get to grips with the idea that Russian secret services would try to bump off the former spy Sergei Skripal with a poisoning agent knowing it would be like leaving a calling card, implicating them directly, when they could have done it in numerously more efficient ways.

It simply does not wash.

I hope, therefore, that the Scottish Government does not fall into the trap and embrace the London Government’s Russophobic hysteria, blaming Russia without evidence when just about any country could have made the poison agent – especially Britain, where nerve gases originated.

Without establishing who committed the crime or where the agent came from, Theresa May and her accomplices laid down ultimatums, which Russia quite rightly refused to accept. Sending a sample of the agent to Russia for inspection could do no harm. Why was the request refused?

Could this be another distraction to build up support in the propaganda battle against Russia for supporting President Assad and the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party in Syria?

It seems more likely that British agents were behind the attack in an attempted publicity murder of Putin. William Burns. 41/8 Pennywell Road, Edinburgh.