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Source: EU summit in Salzburg not to adopt new anti-Russia sanctions over Skripal case

The summit is due to be held on September 20

© AP Photo/Markus Schreiber

BRUSSELS, September 18. /TASS/. Heads of state and government of the 28 EU states will not adopt new sanctions against Russia over Russia’s alleged involvement in poisoning of the former Russian military intelligence officer Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, a source in the EU Council told TASS.

"Introduction of new restrictions at the summit is not expected. At the moment no additional sanctions against Russia are planned," the source said.

Earlier on Tuesday, President of the European Council Donald Tusk said in a letter to the participants of the informal summit, which will be held on September 20 in Salzburg, that the EU leaders would discuss the situation around the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter. According to him, British Prime Theresa May will report on the case.

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On September 5, May told parliament the Crown Prosecution Service was ready to charge two Russian citizens - Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov - with an attempt on the lives of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Also it was stated that the British police would go ahead with inquiries into the Salisbury and Amesbury poisonings as parts of one case. Petrov and Boshirov in an interview with RT TV channel rejected all accusations.

According to the British version of the events in Salisbury, on March 4 former GRU Colonel Sergei Skripal, convicted in Russia of spying for Britain, and his daughter Yulia, were affected by a nerve gas of the Novichok class in Salisbury. The British government claimed that Russia was highly likely involved in the incident. Moscow strongly dismissed all speculations on that score, adding that programs for developing this substance had never existed in the Soviet Union or Russia.

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