Zakharova: the Skripal case is part of huge plan to discredit Russia

Russia’s Foreign Ministry is considering countermeasures to the UK’s unfriendly steps against Russia. Those measures will be taken soon, the Ministry’s Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said during a briefing on Mar 15. EADaily’s correspondent quotes Zakharova as saying that she meant British Prime Minister Theresa May’s “insane allegations” concerning the Skripal case.

According to Zakharova, the Russian Embassy in London has sent a number of diplomatic notes to the British Foreign Office with a view to start an active dialogue on the matter. “We are ready to act in line with the Chemical Weapons Convention and to use the capacities of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. We have also asked them to provide us access to Russian citizen Skripal. And one of our notes concerns the report that official British agencies may launch a cyberattack against Russia,” Zakharova said.

She noted that the UK refuses to cooperate with Russia as a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention and as a member of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. “London is reluctant to provide us with any information concerning the case,” Zakharova said.

“They are not going to provide us with any samples of the matter discovered on the scene, nor have they supplied us with any information on the incident,” Zakharova said.

She believes that the Skripal case is part of the anti-Russian campaign. “In the framework of that campaign, they are using UN SC mechanisms for kindling anti-Russian hysteria,” Zakharova said, calling on the UK to provide all available materials regarding the incident.

When asked if the UK had earlier pressured Russian diplomats considering Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement that he was unable to convince his British counterpart Boris Johnson to grant visas to employees of Russian diplomatic offices in London, Zakharova referred to the manner of May’s last speech in the British parliament: “This is the manner the Prime Minister of a nuclear state thinks fit to use when speaking to Russia, Russian diplomats and Russian citizens… They once spoke about love they felt towards the Russian people. Yesterday we saw that love. We also see that love when we meet at international organizations. Unfortunately, not everybody can see it as such meetings are generally held behind closed doors. There our British colleagues feel free to show their love. And now they have received a worthy response,” Zakharova said.

She said that it is for the United States to decide whether to join the UK’s sanctions against Russia or not.

“We see that a whole number of politicians are using the anti-Russian sanctions to make their way in politics,” Zakharova said, when asked if she expected the United States to support the UK.

“Some of them have made a fortune on this as they are doing it for money. The political system in the United States is based on lobbyism – when certain people push laws for money,” Zakharova said.

She noted that Russia had no single motive for committing the crime. “We are eager to cooperate with the British side on this case and we wonder why no specific information has been given to anybody so far,” Zakharova said.

She believes that some people in the West are committed to raise the anti-Russian campaign to a new level.

“What took place at the UN yesterday has convinced us that this story has one more track. They are trying to link all the elements related to the chemical weapons in Syria with the incident in London. Their logic is that this proves that Damascus is using chemical weapons, that Russia is encouraging it and that we have used chemical matters in the territory of Great Britain. This is where things are moving. Nobody is making a secret of it. This is part of a huge plan,” Zakharova said.