Excerpt from Russian MFA Spox Maria Zakharova's weekly briefing on topical foreign policy issues, 23 October 2024

❓ Question: The British government has "exhumed" the Skripal case, there is no other way to call it.

This case is again being stirred up in public hearings. Let me remind you that this is a public inquiry into the case of July 8, 2018, when British national Dawn Sturgess, aged 44, died under mysterious circumstances. Her boyfriend, Charlie Rowley, discovered a bottle of perfume in a bin and, unfortunately, made the ill-considered decision to gift it to his girlfriend. Consequently, she applied the perfume, leading to her tragic demise, while he survived. How would you comment on this situation? What is currently transpiring in Britain once more? From where does this Skripal case resurface, and what does it entail?

💬 Maria Zakharova: Over the years, we have consistently maintained a proactive and assertive stance in presenting the international community with the factual narrative of the events that occurred in Salisbury and Amesbury.

We shall persist in our observation.

At present, we witness the utilisation of a quasi-judicial mechanism by the British establishment to embed within the public consciousness an anti-Russia interpretation of the 2018 incidents. This endeavour is intended to perpetuate the dissemination of Russophobia.

This is because all matters related to the Kiev regime, Ukraine, and the situation surrounding Vladimir Zelensky have begun to operate counterproductively for official London. The narrative has reached a saturation point, becoming intolerable for the people.

The British public had an opportunity to witness the reality of Ukraine when its citizens arrived in the United Kingdom. Despite encountering various forms of exclusion, denial, and limitation on entry, they eventually arrived under specific quotas. The British authorities have experienced firsthand the aggressive Russophobic tendencies of this Ukrainian faction. They observed the reality – not those Ukrainians who acknowledge our shared history, honour the heroes of World War II and the Great Patriotic War, and harbour no ill will but rather perceive merit in cooperation, friendship, and engagement. Instead, they encountered those with a nationalistic inclination akin to the image of a sickle poised at the throat of their target in this "field of rye," or perhaps more aptly termed "field of lies." They have witnessed it themselves, rendering it futile to propagate the notion of a mythical adversary of democracy. Such attempts no longer bear fruit.

As with Usama bin Laden in his time, who, on the one hand, was described by Anglo-Saxon tabloids as "a warrior on the path of democracy," only to subsequently be declared by the West as terrorist number one, we observe a similar situation here. Vladimir Zelensky and the entire junta have transitioned from being perceived as a "warrior" or "democratic reformer" to being viewed as "warriors for Western values," and have now descended to the level of ordinary terrorists, criminals, drug lords, and representatives of the international drug cartel engaged in various forms of international crime. Consequently, this topic can no longer be utilised as a tool. The public is already fatigued and sceptical of all this. Hence, the incidents in Salisbury and Amesbury, involving Sergey and Yulia Skripal, Dawn Sturgess, and others, have resurfaced.

Yet another attempt to associate the events in Amesbury with the provocation surrounding Sergey or Yulia Skripal has been noted. It appears there is a renewed effort to incite anti-Russia sentiments within the British community, given the involvement of a British citizen who perished. It may be prudent to observe some legal procedure to ascertain what transpired in her case.

Despite all the bias, investigation officials were compelled to acknowledge the evident inconsistencies in the British narrative of the Sergey or Yulia Skripal case, which we have been addressing over the years. Furthermore, these inconsistencies are also highlighted in the publication on the website of the Russian Embassy in London, titled Salisbury: Five Years of Unanswered Questions.

This entire situation is characterised by a politicised and non-transparent nature. It clearly indicates that the British authorities are not committed to a fair and impartial trial in the Skripal case.

They are deliberately delaying the investigation, diverting it down a misleading path, and politicising the issue. This underscores the apparent frame-up nature of the events and reveals that the true aim of the measures taken during Theresa May's premiership was to tarnish our country's international reputation and bilateral relations.

https://mid.ru/en/press_service/spokesman/briefings/1977268/#sel=257:1:TWE,266:105:okl