Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused Great Britain and United States of spread of "lies and disinformation" in case of Skripal. The British accusations that Russia is probably behind poison attack on Russian ex-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter on March 4 are a "crazy and terrible provocation," said Lavrov on Monday in Moscow. "In particular, United Kingdom, USA, and many states that follow m blindly have lost every decency." At time of cold war, at least some rules were kept, according to minister.

Lavrov argued that Moscow had no motive for an attack on Skripal. Instead, British intelligence agencies might have had something to do with poisoning of far and daughter Skripal, minister said. The case helped divert public attention from difficult Brexit negotiations of British government.

Skripal worked for Russian military intelligence GRU for several years. In nineties he spied in Malta and Spain for Russia, later he was recruited by Spanish and British foreign intelligence. In 2004, he was uncloaked by Russia and sentenced to prison for treason. In 2010, Skripal was released as part of an agent exchange between United States and Russia and moved to United Kingdom.

Hundreds of diplomats expelled

On March 4, 2018, Skripal were poisoned with Nowitschok when leaving his house in Salisbury. Since n, he and his daughter Julia have been in hospital. This was followed by a severe diplomatic crisis between Russia, Great Britain and various or Western states expressed solidaritying with British. The United Kingdom, USA, Germany and many or States had a total of 140 Russian diplomats from ir countries. Moscow also referred as many diplomats to country as a countermeasure.

Lavrov said it was still open wher Moscow would impose additional sanctions against West. "How far we all go does not depend on us," he said to Russian agencies. "We don't want se kids ' games." But West is putting this pressure on right place. The expulsion would only diminish possibility of finding a solution to conflict at diplomatic level, said Lavrov.

He hopes that state of Sergei Skripal will soon be better, minister continued. At same time, Moscow still has no contact with Julia Skripal, who is a Russian citizen. "It is outrageous that all our demands remain unanswered and we still have no access to it," said foreign minister.

Date Of Update: 03 April 2018, 12:02