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Russia does not consider Skripal case closed, UN envoy says

Russia expects the UK to provide answers to the questions posed to it earlier

UNITED NATIONS, March 4. /TASS/. Russia does not consider the Skripal case closed and it expects the UK to provide answers to the questions posed to it earlier, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said on Thursday during the talks of the UN Security Council.

"This case isn’t closed for us. We still have dozens of questions that we sent to our British colleagues," he said, noting that some Western states have already made conclusions on the Skripal saga based on evidence of a "highly likely" kind. "We will find a way to make these questions public again, and we will pursue answers to these questions."

During the meeting of the UN Security Council on the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the UN Barbara Woodward reminded that March 4 marks the third anniversary of the incident in Salisbury, and once again accused Russia of involvement in this incident. She stressed that police work on the Salisbury case gave enough grounds to put forward accusations against Russian nationals.

On March 4, 2018, former GRU officer Sergei Skripal, who had been convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain and later swapped for Russian intelligence officers, and his daughter Yulia allegedly suffered the effects of the so-called Novichok nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury. Claiming that the substance used in the attack had been a nerve agent allegedly developed in Russia, London rushed to accuse Moscow of being involved in the incident. The Russian side flatly 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.