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Boris Johnson claims ‘overwhelming evidence’ Russia was behind Skripal poisoning Boris Johnson claims ‘overwhelming evidence’ Russia was behind Skripal poisoning
(35 minutes later)
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said there is “overwhelming evidence” that Russia was behind the Salisbury poisoning. He claimed Moscow’s “smug” and “sarcastic” response indicated guilt.
“I’m afraid the evidence is overwhelming that it is Russia,” Johnson told the BBC. “There’s something in the kind of smug, sarcastic response that we’ve heard from the Russians that indicates their fundamental guilt.”
On Wednesday, May announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats and the suspension of bilateral talks. May claimed Russia was “culpable” for the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, which amounted to “unlawful use of force against the UK.”
“They want to simultaneously deny it, and at the same time to glory in it,” he added.
Johnson claims the reason Russia “chose this nerve agent” – Novichok – was to show people in its agencies who may be thinking of defecting or “supporting another way of life” that “Russia will take revenge. That is fundamentally what this is about.”
The foreign secretary went on to claim it is obvious Russia has illegally retained stocks of Soviet chemical weapons.
“At a time when Russia is going in the wrong direction, becoming more repressive, when Vladimir Putin’s regime becomes more corrupt, it’s more important than ever for him that he jams down the lid on potential dissent, on political defectors,” Johnson said.
“This is a way of saying ‘Look at what happens to people who stand up to our regime.’”
Russia has repeatedly asked for a sample of the toxin which was used to poison Skripal and his daughter. It has denied any involvement in the incident.
However, Britain will not hand any samples over, or take the case through the proper international channels of the Organization of the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), of which both Russia and the UK are members.
At a UN Security Council yesterday, the representative for Russia, Vasily Nebenzya, vehemently denied British allegations that Russia perpetrated a nerve agent attack on UK soil, while imploring Council members to think critically about the incident.
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