MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Alexander Yakovenko said on Friday British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is not ready to meet with him to discuss details of the so-called Skripal case.
"Boris Johnson is not ready to meet with me to discuss all the details. I think it is because of the lack of arguments, as he is under criticism from, among others, the opposition Labour Party, which demands the British government give evidence and it never does," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 television channel.
On April 7, a spokesman for the Russian embassy said it was time to organize a meeting between Yakovenko and Johnson to discuss the entire spectrum of bilateral relations, as well as details of the investigation into the Salisbury incident. For these ends, the Russian ambassador referred a personal note to the British foreign secretary. The Russian embassy said it hoped for a constructive reply from the British side.
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, UK. Police said they had been exposed to a nerve agent.
Later, London claimed that the toxin of Novichok-class had been allegedly developed in Russia. With that, the UK rushed to accuse Russia of being involved, while failing to produce any evidence. Moscow refuted the accusations that it had participated in the incident and points out that neither the Soviet Union nor Russia have ever done research into that toxic chemical.