[ad_1]
LONDON – Leaders of the United States, France, Germany and Canada on Thursday approved the British Novichok poisoning assessment of a former Russian spy and his daughter in March, saying the attack was "almost certainly" approved by a Russian government.
"We have every confidence in the British assessment that the two suspects were Russian military intelligence officers, also known as the GRU, and that this operation was almost certainly approved by a high-level government." Minister Theresa May and Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel and Justin Trudeau.
The leaders also urged Russia to provide "full disclosure of its Novichok program" and said that they "would continue to disrupt the hostile activities of foreign intelligence networks in our territories."
The joint statement was issued shortly before representatives of London and Moscow at the United Nations clashed at the Security Council at an emergency meeting convened by Britain to inform diplomats of the investigation.
British Ambassador Karen Pierce has methodically described the evidence she has evoked, highlighting the Kremlin's complicity in the attack on 4 March in the peaceful English town of Salisbury.
Two Russians – using the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov – were charged on Wednesday in absentia with the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with Novichok, a nerve agent.
Pierce acknowledged that the two suspects, who returned to Russia soon after the attack, can not be extradited under the Russian constitution. But she said Britain will ask Interpol to issue a red alert to pick them up if they leave Russian territory, so they can be tried in Britain.
[What is Novichok, the nerve agent identified in the Salisbury spy attack?]
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia calmly turned a pencil in his hand while Pierce, sitting five feet from him, was talking. Then he unleashed contempt by denying any Russian involvement in this affair, which he ridiculed as "a cocktail of unfounded and deceptive facts".
Nebenzia sought to diminish the British evidence, saying it contradicted the credulity of concluding that two Russians had introduced Novichok into Britain in a counterfeit perfume bottle without being poisoned themselves. He also questioned the authenticity of the images taken by the cameras showing the Russians arriving at Gatwick Airport in London. And he rejected the claim that the two men were working for the GRU while the names used to enter Britain would be pseudonyms.
"Nothing is surprising in this post-truth world created by our Western colleagues," he said, according to the English translation of his remarks.
He denied that Russia had ever developed or deployed Novichok and rejected the British claim that Russia refused to cooperate, saying it was London that refused offers of Russian aid.
"London needs this story for one purpose," he said. "To release disgusting anti-Russian hysteria."
US Ambassador Nikki Haley praised the British inquiry as a "master class" in the search for justice and the rule of law.
"Now we have to help our British friends find the two identified suspects and get them to face justice in the UK," she said. "Better yet, why does not the Russian government return these two countries to the British authorities?"
Sergei Skripal, a former GRU officer, was sentenced in 2006 for sharing state secrets with the British. He was released in Britain during an espionage exchange in 2010.
On Wednesday, May told Parliament that the alleged attackers were GRU agents and that the attack was "almost certainly" approved at "a higher level of the Russian state".
British Security Minister Ben Wallace went further on Thursday declaring that Russian President Vladimir Putin was responsible for the attack. Putin is "the president of the Russian Federation, and it is his government that controls, finances and directs military intelligence – that is, the GRU – through his defense minister," he said. Wallace told the BBC.
Morello reported from Washington.
Read more:
How did the ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter survive the nerve agent poisoning?
Britain demands that Russia explain "what happened after last poisoning to nerve agents"
The current coverage of postal correspondents around the world
Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay informed about foreign news
[ad_2]Source link
