MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/. Russia’s ambassador to the United Kingdom Alexander Yakovenko is due to meet with new Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt soon, Yakovenko said in a televised interview with the Rossiya’24 channel on Saturday.
"I received a letter from the Foreign Office that he [Jeremy Hunt] would like to hold a meeting. I think that the meeting will be arranged in the near future," he said. "I believe the meeting will be timely since, first, [we] have to discuss the level of our countries’ bilateral relations and then I would like to ask questions which have not been answered in our correspondence."
When asked about the investigation into the Salisbury poisoning incident, Yakovenko pointed out that "it cannot but be a matter of concern" that "practically all evidence has been destroyed."
"Provided that something should be checked out, there will be no chance. Therefore, when we speak about a veil of secrecy over this probe, we mean that in fact there is not any physical evidence left," he said.
Salisbury incident
On March 4, Sergei Skripal, 66, who had been convicted in Russia for spying for the UK but later swapped for Russian intelligence officers, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on a bench near the Maltings shopping center in Salisbury, England. Police said they suffered the effects of an alleged nerve agent.
Later on, London claimed that the Novichok-class toxin had been allegedly developed in Russia. The UK rushed to accuse Russia of being involved, while failing to furnish any evidence. Moscow refuted the accusations stating that neither the Soviet Union nor Russia had ever done research on that toxic chemical. In April, Chief Executive of the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down Gary Aitkenhead said that British experts had been unable to identify the origin of the nerve agent used to attack Skripal and his daughter.
However, the UK expelled 23 Russian diplomats and announced other restrictive measures against Moscow without presenting any evidence of its involvement in the incident. In retaliation to the UK’s steps, Russia expelled 23 British diplomats, closed the British consulate general in the city of St. Petersburg, while the British Council had to shut down its operations in Russia.