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Diplomat warns British special services can be implicated in Salisbury incident

The whole "Skripal affair" was launched by the UK government in an attempt to attain certain political goals, Zakharova believes

MOSCOW, June 15. /TASS/. The UK intelligence services could be involved in orchestrating the Skripal case, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.

"The circumstances only confirm the British authorities’ provocative motives and their obvious desire to use the orchestrated Skripal case for their own unscrupulous anti-Russian purposes," she said. "Also, it is not improbable that British officials, including the intelligence services, could be involved in the Salisbury provocation." 

The Skripal affair was fabricated in an attempt to show that Britain is in the forefront of world politics, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman added. 

"The whole affair was launched by the Theresa May government in an attempt to attain internal political aims and apparently to demonstrate that Britain is in the forefront of foreign political activity," Zakharova said.

On March 4, former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, 66, who had been earlier sentenced in Russia for spying for the UK, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on a bench near the Maltings shopping center in Salisbury, the UK. Police said they had been exposed to a nerve agent.

Later on, London claimed that the toxin of Novichok-class had been allegedly developed in Russia. Moscow rejected all of the United Kingdom’s accusations, saying that a program aimed at developing such a substance had existed neither in the Soviet Union nor in Russia.

Salisbury District Hospital announced on May 18 that Sergei Skripal had been discharged from it, while his daughter Yulia was released from the hospital on April 10.