Russia Demands Explanations from London and Paris on Skripal Case

Russia presented today 14 questions to the United Kingdom and France on the case of the double agent Serguei Skripal who, according to London, was poisoned with a chemical agent in the English city of Salisbury.

The Russian Foreign Ministry demanded some explanations from the British government about the reasons why the right of consular access was denied to two Russian citizens, Skripal and his daughter Julia.

Russia would also like to know what antidotes and in what form the victims were injected with, and how such antidotes came into the possession of British doctors at the scene of the incident.

Moscow is interested in knowing which were the basic samples used to determine the Russian origin of the substance used in the alleged chemical attack in Salisbury on March 4.

Russia also considers it interesting to know, if London has any sample of the chemical agent, which British representatives refer to as 'Novichok' (Rookie).

Specialists quoted by Russian television said that the aforementioned laboratories, with totally restricted access, are only 13 kilometers from the place where Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious in Salisbury.

Russia wonders on what grounds France was involved in the investigation in which two Russian citizens were poisoned and if London notified it to the Organization for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Moscow denied the existence of any substances registered as Novichok in the Soviet Union or Russia, and recalled that in 2017, under the supervision of the OPCW and Western countries, Russia eliminated all its chemical arsenal, something that neither Washington nor London did.