"We're working on our response measures to London and will soon execute it", said the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova. She claims that the UK didn't respond comprehensively to any of the four notes sent by Moscow regarding the Sergey Skripal's case, the former GRU colonel who was poisoned.
Daria Kozlova with details on what other claims were announced on the Smolensk Square. She's with us live.
- Greetings, Daria. Do we know how exactly Moscow is going to respond? And what did our Foreign Ministry comment on yesterday's statement of Theresa May?
- Greetings. No, we still don't know how Russia will respond. We've asked Maria Zakharova to comment on those options that the Ministry is considering but she only said that Russia will respond soon.
Previously, Russia sent several diplomatic notes to the British Foreign Office encouraging London to actively cooperate with Moscow on this case and reminding London to supply Russia with the investigation findings and the samples of the chemical agent.
Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry: "We've sent a total of four notes and received meaningless formal replies. Currently, the UK refuses to cooperate with Russia in fulfilling its responsibilities as a member of the CWC Convention and a member of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons This fact was also mentioned in the OPCW".
Moreover, the Russian notes requested to give us access to Yulia Skripal, Sergey Skripal's daughter, who was also injured during the attack on the former GRU colonel. London refused again. Moscow also warned that there could be possible cyber-attacks against Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out that London is trying to use the UN Security Council to ramp up the information campaign against Russia.
Recently, the Security Council held a meeting where several countries voiced their solidarity to London including the United States' representative. The Russian Foreign Ministry asks on what grounds and based on what solid evidence third parties can pick sides on a case that's still being investigated, that's the subject of a criminal investigation.
Maria Zakharova: "Besides the UK government, does somebody have the data? Nobody. How can you be solidary to something you know nothing about because you have no basic data? That's ridiculous. In this case, you, your colleagues, practically anyone can come and support Theresa May. It's not about knowing facts or having investigation results it's about ideological support".
Moscow stresses that it had nothing to do with the poisoning of the former GRU colonel and is ready to cooperate with London within the framework of international documents. The diplomatic controversy with Sergey Skripal's case was called "a political information campaign" by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Daria Kozlova was monitoring Maria Zakharova's briefing.
