British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Friday that it is highly likely that Russian President Vladimir Putin himself made the decision to use a military nerve agent in the attack on the former double agent in England.
– We have nothing against the Russians themselves, and the result of these events will not be Russophobia, Johnson told reporters on Friday.
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– Our dispute is with Putin’s Kremlin and his decision – and we think it is very likely that it was his decision – to use a nerve agent on the streets of the United Kingdom, on the streets of Europe for the first time since World War II, the British minister emphasized.
Prime Minister Theresa May highlighted on Wednesday that Russia is responsible for the attempted murder of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. May added that it is tragic that Putin, who is likely to win the presidential mandate for the fourth time on Sunday, chose to act in this way.
Deteriorating Relations
Shortly after Johnson’s statements, the Kremlin announced that his accusations were shocking, according to the TASS news agency.
– Any reference or mention of our president in that context is shocking and an unforgivable breach of diplomatic rules of decent behavior, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Russia denies any blame for the incident and even accused London of fabricating the attack to incite anti-Russian hysteria.
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Relations between the two countries deteriorated after the murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium in 2006 in London. A British investigation concluded that this murder was likely approved by Putin, which the Kremlin denied.
British Minister of State for Europe and the Americas Alan Duncan stated on Friday in Sarajevo that there is no doubt that Russia bears responsibility for the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal with a nerve agent on British soil and that therefore the expulsion of Russian diplomats is a completely appropriate measure.
– We know the origin of the nerve agent. We know that it is banned and that its possession is contrary to chemical weapons conventions. This agent was used and it is disgusting and unacceptable, Duncan told reporters during an official visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
After the investigation determined that Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a nerve agent called Novichok, which was part of the Russian chemical arsenal, the British government decided to sanction Moscow and expel 23 Russian diplomats from its territory.
Minister Duncan said on Friday that there are only two possible scenarios: either the Russians deliberately tried to kill their former agent and his daughter, or they simply “lost” the poison which they were not even allowed to possess under international conventions.
