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Russian embassy confirms that Charles Rowley has requested a meeting with Putin

Rowley met earlier with British Prime Minister Theresa May, tried to sort out the situation and, as he put it, noted that he was not satisfied with the conversation
Matthew Rowley, Charles Rowley and Russia’s Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko Ilya Dmitryachev/TASS
Matthew Rowley, Charles Rowley and Russia’s Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko
© Ilya Dmitryachev/TASS

LONDON, April 7. /TASS/. Russia’s embassy in Britain has confirmed that the British national Charles Rowley who Scotland Yard says was exposed to a 'Novichok-class' nerve agent last summer, asked Russia’s Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, a representative of the embassy told TASS when asked to comment on Rowley’s statements regarding the issue.

"Charles Rowley met earlier with British Prime Minister Theresa May, tried to sort out the situation and, as he put it, noted that he was not satisfied with the conversation. His wish to meet President Putin is related to his intention to understand what happened," the representative said. "Having failed to elicit truth from Theresa May, he wants to find it in a conversation with Russian President," the diplomat said, adding that it was the wish to sort out the details of what happened that has become one of the main reasons for Rowley’s meeting with Yakovenko.

The focus of the discussion, which was initiated by Charles Rowley and his brother Matthew, was on the events around the alleged poisoning of Russia’s former military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in Salisbury in March 2018, as well as Rowley himself and his friend Dawn Sturgess in Amesbury in June 2018.

Yakovenko outlined in detail Moscow's view on what happened in Salisbury and Amesbury, and emphasized that the numerous requests from the Russian side to the British authorities mostly remain unanswered.

Following the meeting, Charlie Rowley said in an interview with the British newspaper Sunday Mirror that he had asked Russia’s ambassador to organize a meeting with President Vladimir Putin for him. According to Rowley, the Russian diplomat replied that he would deliver the request.

British poisonings

According to London, former Russian military intelligence (GRU) Colonel 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, 2018. 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, saying that neither the Soviet Union nor Russia ever had any program aimed at developing such a substance.

On June 30, 2018, 44-year-old Dawn Sturgess and 45-year-old Charles Rowley were hospitalized in critical condition in the British town of Amesbury. The Metropolitan Police went on to claim that the two had been exposed to Novichok, the same nerve agent that was allegedly used in the Skripal poisoning. After being mysteriously exposed to a nerve agent and falling into a coma, Sturgess died on July 8, while Rowley was discharged from the hospital.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said in a report on September 4 that Dawn Sturgess died after being exposed to the same nerve agent that had been allegedly used in the March attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal in neighboring Salisbury.

British Prime Minister Theresa May on September 5 briefed Parliament on progress in the investigation to declare that two Russians carrying passports issued in the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov were the suspected attackers. British special services claimed that both were GRU agents. Then men were interviewed on the RT television channel to dismiss the speculations as preposterous.