Posted on 03/13/2018 12:29:17 PM PDT by Kaslin
On March 4th, Russian defector and former British intelligence source Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found slumped over on a bench in the city center of Salisbury, clearly in distress. As first responders quickly discovered, the Skripals had been poisoned with a potentially deadly nerve agent.
But the damage was not limited just to them. Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, one of the first officers to respond to the scene, also fell ill and was hospitalized after being exposed to the nerve agent. Furthermore, hundreds of local residents in the small Southern English town who came into contact with the Skripals or the restaurant and pub that they had been in that day had to decontaminate their belongings to prevent potential poisonings.
After two weeks of investigation, with the Skripals still in critical condition, the British government now firmly believes that the Kremlin is responsible for the attack. This is due in large part to the findings of investigators who have concluded that the Skripals were poisoned with a Soviet-developed nerve agent known as “Novichok.”
On Monday, Prime Minister Theresa May spoke to the British Parliament to publicly demand an explanation from the Russian government for the poisoning [emphasis mine]:
“It is now clear that Mr. Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. This is part of a group of nerve agents known as “Novichok.” Based on the positive identification of this chemical agent by world leading experts at the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down, our knowledge that Russia has previously produced this agent and would still be capable of doing so, Russia’s record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations, and our assessment that Russia views some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinations, the government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal.
“Mr. Speaker, there are therefore only two plausible explanations for what happened in Salisbury on the 4th of March. Either this was a direct act by the Russian state against our country, or the Russian government lost control of its potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others.
“This afternoon, my right honorable friend the foreign secretary has summoned the Russian ambassador to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and asked him to explain which of these two possibilities it is, and therefore to account for how this Russian-produced nerve agent could have been deployed in Salisbury against Mr. Skripal and his daughter.
"My right honorable friend has stated to the ambassador that the Russian Federation must immediately provide full and complete disclosure of the Novichok program to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and he has requested the Russian government’s response by the end of tomorrow.”
May went on to link the attempted assassination of the Skripals with Russia’s aggressive foreign policy under President Putin, including its 2014 annexation of Crimea and subsequent support for rebels in Eastern Ukraine and the 2006 assassination of former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London. Vowing that harsh measures would be imposed on Russia for failing to cooperate with British authorities investigating the poisoning, May closed her remarks by re-iterating the point that her government sees the poisoning as an attack not just against the Skripals, but the United Kingdom as a whole [emphasis mine]:
“On Wednesday, we will consider in detail the response from the Russian state. Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom. And I will come back to this House and set out the full range of measures that we will take in response. Mr. Speaker, this attempted murder using a weapons-grade nerve agent in a British town was not just a crime against the Skripals. It was an indiscriminate and reckless act against the United Kingdom, putting the lives of innocent civilians at risk, and we will not tolerate such a brazen attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil.”
On Tuesday, British foreign secretary Boris Johnson confirmed May’s ultimatum and stressed his appreciation for those that have spoken out against Russia in light of the attempted assassination, including now-outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson:
“What we’re doing today is giving Russia until midnight tonight to explain how it came to be that Novichok was used on the streets of Wiltshire. If they can come up with a convincing explanation, and obviously we will want to see full disclosure of that to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague. If not, then clearly we will want to be announcing the UK response, and that will come tomorrow.
“In the meantime, what we’ve been doing is talking to friends and partners, explaining what we see as the high likelihood of Russian state agency. And I’ve been very encouraged so far by the strength of the support that we are getting, I think in particular from President Macron of France, from -- I just talked to Sigmar Gabriel, my German counterpart, and from Washington, where Rex Tillerson last night made it absolutely clear that he sees this as part of a pattern of disruptive behavior, and increasingly disruptive behavior, malign behavior by Russia.
"The reckless use of chemical weapons -- a support for the reckless use of chemical weapons that stretches from Syria now to the streets of Salisbury. And I’ve been encouraged by the willingness of our friends to show support and solidarity.”
The UK government’s demands for cooperation in their poisoning probe are unlikely to be complied with. The Russian Foreign Ministry denied that Moscow had any involvement in the poisoning and has also demanded that the British government hand over samples of the nerve agent used in the attack to Russia for its own examination.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has insisted that the accusations from the British government must be evaluated by proper international authorities under the terms of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, which prohibits “the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, transfer or use of chemical weapons” by signing countries, including Russia.
Strongly worded letter to follow.
Boy, this sure does make Russia look bad and vindicates all the Western Russophobes.
No way Trump is gonna be able to have a substantive meeting with Putin now.
Better start bombing Syria....
Good lord, the Falkland Islands war would be impossible for them today. They can nuke Russia. Their next step down from that... is an aircraft carrier with no planes, and RAF with no bombers, and an Army with more Generals than tanks.
The Japanese navy and Indian navy is far more powerful than the RN.
On the one hand they talk about what an evil, lethal, nerve agent it is and on the other, how the victims are doing in the hospital.
If it were really the agent they say it was all the information I've found said they'd have been stone cold dead within a minute or two of exposure.
Maybe they were just exposed to the left hand of some Muzzie who doesn't believe in toilet paper, an unpleasant experience no doubt, but not usually lethal.
You 100% correct.
Trump has said he isn't convinced the Russians did it.
“Makes as much sense as Russia deciding to assassinate this guy and his daughter after eight years.”
If they wanted him dead, they had him in prison all that time.
“It is now clear that Mr. Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. This is part of a group of nerve agents known as “Novichok.” Based on the positive identification of this chemical agent by world leading experts at the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down, our knowledge that Russia has previously produced this agent and would still be capable of doing so, Russia’s record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations, and our assessment that Russia views some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinations, the government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal.”
WOW! that’s a whole lotta weasel-worded speculation!
Definitely not WW3 worthy
People who make try to make cases like this to incite superpowers against each other scare me a whole lot more than Russia!
This whole thing plays a lot more like a spy vs spy bungle or a clandestine mission gone bad
And Putin doesn’t bungle
If he wanted this guy dead, he’d be dead
Translate Sergei Skripal into English, and it comes out as “Seth Rich”.
Could be. OTOH, we have people who lie for money (Christopher Steele for example).
That being said, I believe Russia is making a huge mistake in supporting Iran and will be involved in Ezekiel 38 (which I believe is different from another war 1000+ years later).
I’m also having a hard time trusting May. She’s been wrong about a whole host of things.
I have no illusions about Russia. I just hope this is not a baseless provocation.
We live in interesting times.
I get the feeling that somebody is going to kick over a garbage can and MASH's Colonel Flagg is going to pop out.
Yes; this is way to convenient and leads simply and directly to the Russians. The involvement of the Steele dossier and the US deep state is also possible Now the propagandists of all stripes will fog up the field and we will likely not find out the truth, as usual.
Putin says it’s a Jewish conspiracy to blame Russia.
The Kremlin’s Troll Army: Moscow is financing legions of pro-Russia Internet commenters:
A June article by Max Seddon of BuzzFeed reported the Kremlin was spending millions of dollars to pay English-speaking Russians to promote President Vladimir Putin and his policies in U.S. media like Fox News broadcasting and The Huffington Post and Politico news sites.
Trolls are reportedly expected to manage multiple fake accounts and post on news articles 50 times a day, often with sentiments as simplistic as “Putin makes Obama look stupid and weak!”
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/the-kremlins-troll-army/375932/
____________________________
Documents Show How Russia’s Troll Army Hit America:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/documents-show-how-russias-troll-army-hit-america
If they wanted him dead, they had him in prison all that time.
Who had who in prison? The guy and his daughter in the hospital? The Russians? The UK government? The U.S. government?
Follow the Fake Dossier.
““It is now clear that Mr. Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia.”
And that is the word of Teresa May, and the British intel establishment that tried to damage Trump, spied on Michael Flynn, stop Brexit, and intensify a new cold war.
Totally believable //s
I read they were both found slumped over on a bench. That sounds like commonly available fentanyl. Nerve gas would have them doing the funky chicken, not dozing off. Also, fentanyl explains first responders being contaminated. It’s happened to a lot of cops here in the US.
Excellent point
Funny, how you Putin butt kissing slime balls always show up on these threads. In this case mere seconds apart.
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