Moscow accuses UK of ‘huge conceit’ in ex-spy poisoning

Elena Teslova

MOSCOW: Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called out the U.K.’s “huge conceit” in the case involving the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in an English city.

Speaking at a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu Wednesday, Lavrov said according to a British representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, there was no need for an official request to Russia because the “U.K. foreign minister had invited the Russian ambassador and had told him everything”.

He added: “You know, this is, of course, such a huge conceit, the manifestation of which can be seen in almost all the steps taken by London.

“By the way, not only in this case. The approach ‘we all know, believe us and we demand that you agree with everything’ is applied by London not for the first time.

“In this case, our British colleagues, and those who begin to support them unfailingly, even without knowing the results of the investigation has not yet been compl-eted, and this is not enough.”

He also said the U.K. had demonstrated an approach that could be described as “suspicion is a queen of evidence”.

“For them, not recognition — the queen of evidence, but the suspicion, that they themselves put forward, should already be perceived by the whole world as the queen of evidence.

“We do not see facts from our partners. Without the presentation of specific facts Great Britain will be responsible for the attempt to mislead the world community,” he said.

He reiterated that Russia had no motive in poisoning Skripal. “Those who would like to continue the Russophobic campaign in all spheres of human activity without exception had such motives,” he added.

Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were admitted to a hospital after being found unconscious on a bench on March 4 in the southern English city of Salisbury.

Skripal was granted refuge in the U.K. following a spy exchange between Russia and the U.S. in 2010.

He had been convicted by a Moscow military court of “high treason” after admitting to leaking information to British intelligence and was sentenced to 13 years in prison; for this term, he had spent six years in a Russian prison. (AA)