World leaders back the UK in allegations against Russia
● Salisbury attack was ordered by Moscow, world leaders agree
The UK received the backing of its major allies after concluding that the Salisbury nerve agent attack was carried out by two Russian agents as Moscow hit back at the United Nations, condemning the claim as “disgusting anti-russian hysteria”. Russia’s UN ambassador was defiant in saying the UK investigation into the attack was made up of “repeated lies”.
The UK’S allies have backed its conclusion that the Salisbury nerve agent attack was carried out by two Russian agents as Moscow hit back at the United Nations, condemning the claim as “disgusting anti-russian hysteria”.
US president Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French president Emmanuel Macron and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau issued a joint statement agreeing with the British assessment that the operation was “almost certainly approved at a senior government level” in Moscow.
But Russia’s UN ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, was defiant in the face of detailed police evidence, saying the UK’S investigation into the poison attack targeting a Russian double agent was made up of “repeated lies”.
“I’m not going to go through the list of this whole unfounded and mendacious cocktail of facts,” Mr Nebenzya told a Security Council meeting yesterday. He repeated Russian
claims that Sergei Skripal, a former Russian agent, and his daughter Yulia were both “being held somewhere” since falling ill from contact with the deadly nerve agent Novichok.
“London needs this story for just one purpose – to unleash a disgusting anti-russian hysteria and to involve other countries in this hysteria,” he claimed.
The two men alleged to have been behind the March assassination attempt – Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov – were identified by Theresa May as members of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service.
In the joint statement, the world leaders said: “We have full confidence in the British assessment that the two suspects were officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU, and that this operation was almost certainly approved at a senior government level.” Mrs May has spoken to all four allies in recent days to update them about the investigation.
UK security minister Ben Wallace said Russian president Vladimir Putin bore ultimate responsibility for the action of his intelligence agents.
Mr Wallace told the BBC: “The GRU is, without doubt, not rogue, it is led, linked to both the senior members of the Russian general staff and the defence minister and, through that, into the Kremlin and the president’s office.”
He added that the UK would “use whatever means we have within the law and our capabilities” to “push back the Russian malign activity”.