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Skripal poisoning case

Moscow does not have "backstage" contacts with London on Skripal case — diplomat

Russia's deputy UN envoy Dmitry Polyansky said Moscow is ready to answer "any serious questions about the investigation"

© Ilya Dmitryachev/TASS

UNITED NATIONS, March 4. /TASS/. There are no "backstage" contacts between Russia and the UK on the incident in Salisbury where former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned last year, Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN Dmitry Polyanksy told a press conference at the UN headquarters on Monday.

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"It takes two to tango, you know. We are ready to dance, no problem, but we do not have a partner. I can assure you that there are no backstage contacts whatsoever," Polyansky said. "The only two questions the British side wants us to answer are as follows: Has Putin himself poisoned them? Or did he lose grip of some group of individuals or of the substance?" he added.

"We want to answer any questions, any serious questions about the investigation. But again, you cannot pinpoint, all of a sudden, two individuals that happened to be in Britain. No matter where they work or where they worked before. You cannot say that these people are to blame only because they happened to be in Salisbury," Polyansky stressed.

"I encourage those of you who are interested in investigations to dig further, because there are so many things that are not on the surface and, I do not know, maybe they will be embarrassing for the British side, maybe they will help to discover the truth, but we do not know the truth," Polyansky said. "We are very much far from knowing the truth," he noted.

"I can also question the behavior and the interests, or rather lack of interest of some British journalists, who usually like investigative journalism, but it seems they do not want to delve into numerous inconsistencies that are issued by the media or by official sources," he added.

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