LONDON, July 20. /TASS/. The Russian embassy in London once again urges the UK government to conduct a transparent investigation into the Salisbury poisoning incident and confirms its readiness to cooperate on the issue, the embassy spokesperson has said.
"We once again urge the British authorities to conduct the investigation in a transparent way so as to avoid rumors and leaks that mislead the British public and international community," the embassy’s press officer said in a statement. "On our part, we confirm that the Russian law enforcement authorities, whose numerous requests for legal assistance have been left unanswered, are ready to cooperate with the British side."
When asked to comment on Thursday’s media reports, claiming that the Metropolitan Police have allegedly identified two suspected perpetrators of the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, the spokesperson replied: "We have seen the report by the Press Association saying that investigators believe to have identified the persons who poisoned Sergei and Yulia Skripal by cross-checking CCTV recordings with lists of people who entered and left the United Kingdom around that time."
"Security Minister Ben Wallace has already given assessment to this report by writing in Twitter that it ‘belongs in the ill informed and wild speculation folder,’" the embassy official said. "In this regard, we would also like to mention the statement of the Met Police on the Salisbury poisoning published by ‘Daily Mail’ on 17 July, according to which ‘the investigation into the Salisbury attack remains ongoing and we’re not prepared to discuss any lines of enquiry at this stage.’"
"We welcome the fact that the police and the members of the government represented by Ben Wallace begin to understand that endlessly producing different unverified contradictory versions of the Salisbury incident without presenting any evidence is simply impossible," the statement reads.
"The primary reason why the Minister and Scotland Yard have to refute such reports is that back in March the British political leadership rushed to put forward unsubstantiated accusations against Russia, instead of waiting for results of the investigation," it adds.
Salisbury incident
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. 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 a program aimed at developing such a substance had existed neither in the Soviet Union nor in Russia.
Chief Executive of the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down Gary Aitkenhead said later that British experts had been unable to identify the origin of the nerve agent used in the attack on the Skripals.