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Russian top diplomat lambasts West for arm-twisting other countries over Skripal saga

Lavrov says the West tossed aside international law and employed arm-twisting tactics against many countries in order to get them to expel Russian diplomats

© Steve Parsons/PA via AP

MOSCOW, April 5. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that the West tossed aside international law and employed arm-twisting tactics against many countries in order to get them to expel Russian diplomats.

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Moscow opposed to further exacerbation of relations with EU

Russia’s top diplomat noted that the West was staging blatant political provocations in order to further demonize Russia.

"The Skripal case was a fictional and trumped-up pretext to unreasonably expel Russian diplomats, without producing any evidence, not only from the US and the UK but also from many other countries, who were arm-twisted into going along," the minister said at the Moscow Conference on International Security.

"We haven’t seen such a blatant disregard for international law and diplomatic integrity for a long time," Lavrov noted. "We will continue to respond adequately to such steps, but, by the same token, we want to get to the truth. We insist on a substantive and responsible investigation in full compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention."

He also stressed that Western countries would not be able to ignore the questions posed by Moscow based on that convention.

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