SOCHI, May 21. /TASS/. Great Britain triggered the Russia-hating mania through the Skripal incident, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"We are witnessing Great Britain’s rather unprecedented Russia-hating mania, which manifests itself in various ways," he said, commenting on a report dubbed Moscow's Gold: Russian Corruption in the UK, issued by the British House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
"You can see for yourself that the tidal wave of hate against Russia does not stem from any events regarding Great Britain and its citizens, but it was triggered by a provocation staged by the UK - I mean the so called Skripal case," the Kremlin spokesman added.
The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee’s report dubbed "Moscow's Gold: Russian Corruption in the UK" was published on the British parliament’s website earlier on Monday. The document calls on the British government "to sanction more Kremlin-connected individuals."
"We therefore call on the Government to sanction more Kremlin-connected individuals, including by using the powers outlined in the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill, once available, to sanction individuals responsible for gross human rights violations," the report reads.
Skripal incident
According to London, Sergei Skripal, who had been convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain and later swapped for Russian intelligence officers, and his daughter Yulia suffered the effects of an alleged nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury on March 4. Claiming that the substance used in the attack had been a Novichok-class nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union, London rushed to accuse Russia of being involved in the incident. Moscow rejected all of the United Kingdom’s accusations.
The British media initially reported that the Skripals were in critical condition and their odds of survival were minimal but both managed to recover. Yulia was discharged from the hospital in early April but her whereabouts have been unknown since then.
The Russian embassy in London many times requested the British authorities provide consular access to the Skripals who are both Russian citizens but all requests were rejected. "Considering all the facts, we now have more reasons to qualify this situation as an abduction of the two Russian nationals. We will continue to seek the truth and demand answers from the British side," Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Alexander Yakovenko said in this regard.