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Skripal affair turns into boring, predictable game — diplomat

Earlier, Scotland Yard released photos supposedly showing the two Russians who had allegedly poisoned the Skripals

MOSCOW, September 7. /TASS/. The Skripal affair has become a boring and predictable game, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, commenting on the recent declaration of support to London by France, Germany, Canada and the United States.

"A detailed plan has been prepared long ago, and the game has become so predictable and boring that there is even no intrigue left in it," Ryabkov said in a Channel One broadcast. "We feel nothing but disgust every time we read reports about baseless and, at the same time, dogmatic accusations against our country. It is strange that high-ranking people vested with such authority can act in a manner like that."

In a statement issued on Thursday, France, Germany, Canada and the United States called on Russia to reveal all details of its program to develop the Novichok nerve agent.

New findings in Skripal affair

On Wednesday, UK Prime Minister Theresa May briefed the parliament about the secret services’ conclusions regarding investigation of the March 4, 2018, alleged poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury. The conclusion is they had become targets of a special operation by agents of the Russian military intelligence service GRU.

May claimed the operation "was almost certainly also approved outside […] at a senior level of the Russian state".

Scotland Yard released photos supposedly showing the two Russians who had allegedly poisoned the Skripals. The official story made public by the British authorities suggests the two men entered the country 48 hours before the poisoning. They held official Russian passports issued in the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.

The UK government claims Sergei and Yulia Skripal survived exposure to a nerve agent from the class of agents tentatively codenamed Novichok [a novice or a new arrival, depending on the context]. The incident occurred in Salisbury on March 4, 2018.

The British authorities immediately came up with the allegations that Russia ‘highly likely’ stood behind the poisoning. Moscow strongly denies any assertions regarding the development and production of Novichok-class agents in the former USSR or in the Russian Federation.

Experts from the UK defense science and technology laboratory at Porton Down have been unable to identify the origins of the substance Sergei and Yulia Skripal were exposed to.