About the British hysteria, which is already ridiculous, our staff correspondent in Britain, from London — Alexander Khabarov.
The British Salisbury is becoming a city of miracles. First, the mystical poisoning, and now the even more incredible recovery of the Skripal family, who were supposed to have almost no chance of survival. Curiously enough, the voice of Yulia Skripal was first heard not in Britain, but aired on "Rossiya 24". The program "60 Minutes" presented the recording of a phone conversation between Yulia and her cousin Victoria.
- Hello, can you hear me?
- Yes, I can.
- It's Yulia, Skripal.
- Oh, Yulia, it's you. Oh God, I can hear it's you, but couldn't understand. Have they given you a phone?"
This conversation was later quoted by TV-channels worldwide. One of the main details is the information about Yulia's recovering father, the ex-colonel, Sergey Skripal.
Yulia Skripal: "Father is okay. Everything is fine, he's resting now, sleeping. Everyone is in good health, nothing incurable, I'm checking out soon. Everything is okay".
After that, it was meaningless to keep the vow of silence in Salisbury. From the main entrance of the hospital, where the Skripal family allegedly is, exited the head of the treatment section.
Christine Blanshard, chief physician of Salisbury District Hospital: "Yulia herself says that her strength is improving every day, and looks forward to the day that she leaves the hospital. I also want to talk about her father's, Sergey Skripal, health. He is getting well very quickly and is no longer in critical condition".
And that's the end of miracles. Victoria Skripal, who wanted to go to Britain to visit her recovering uncle and cousin, was not given a British visa. Among the reasons for the refusal, it is stated that Sergey Skripal cannot receive visitors right now, and there is no certainty that Yulia Skripal wants your visit. Besides, even during the phone call, she doubted that the British authorities would allow her cousin to come.
Viktoria Skripal: "If I get a visa tomorrow, I'll fly to you on Monday".
Yulia Skripal: "No one will grant you a visa, Vic".
According to the BBC, the British government thinks that Moscow may use Victoria Skripal for its own purposes. Now Victoria Skripal hopes for the good will of Theresa May and recorded an address.
Victoria Skripal: "Dear Theresa May, please, can you as a human being help us to meet our family. We are family. Why are you destroying our family? We haven't done anything bad to either country. We are ordinary people. An ordinary family. And you are breaking us apart now, please help us. My passport is still at the British Embassy in Moscow. I haven't been given it back. You have the chance to issue my visa".
The Ambassador of Russia to the United Kingdom Alexander Yakovenko has sent a note to the British Foreign Secretary, with a request for an urgent meeting, in order to discuss not only the incident in Salisbury but the whole range of the Russian-British relations.
Alexander Yakovenko: "The main handicap of the British position, is, as I understand it, is that they are not ready to make the investigation transparent. And that means that they will conceal something. The fact that they didn't allow Victoria Skripal to pay a visit, means that they are trying to keep her in Russia, don't give her an opportunity to meet her relatives. If you remember, we also requested the samples of the so-called toxic agent, which they also refused. They say nothing officially, except for the Prime Minister's statements. There are some leaks in the media, theories are spreading about, but we don't see anything official".
The British Foreign Office has immediately stated that Russia tries to shift attention from the charges brought against it. At first, London played the victim of a gas attack, now they speak about information warfare. "The Times" writes that two-thirds of all publications about the Skripal case, shared on social media, are made by, as they say here, pro-Kremlin press.
The Times: "Among the most read posts on Twitter and Facebook (запрещена в РФ) about the poisoning of the Skripal family 4 out of 6 are posted by the pro-Kremlin channel RT. They got 63,000 reposts. The two most popular British news agencies have 25,400 reposts. The Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council has stated that the percentage of the content on social media by RT and "Sputnik" is about 65%".
The British were especially infuriated by the tweet by the Russian Embassy with a picture of the detective Hercule Poirot, whose insight is in short supply for the detectives in Salisbury. From the messages from the Embassy, the British also found out that the British Foreign Office has silently deleted its post from March 22nd, where it was stated that the experts from the secret Porton Down lab have determined that the nerve agent, which, allegedly, was used to poison Skripal family, was made in Russia. The chief executive of the laboratory admitted that it was false that they had only determined the type of the agent, but the experts still had questions.
Jose Bustani, former director general of the OPCW, 1997-2002: "I think that the decision made by the UK was premature it's impossible to determine the type of a poison, and it's origin, within a day. Why didn't they immediately turn to the OPCW, and why the OPCW itself didn't do something? It's the organization’s duty to immediately identify, analyze and collect samples".
This shady story about the inspection is a reason to wonder what kind of experiments are carried out in this secret laboratory of the British Ministry of Defence. An independent Bulgarian reporter Dilyana Gaytandshieva has published her own investigation about the US Department of Defense's own secret program which invested more than 2 billion dollars in the production and study of artificial viruses, bacteria and toxins. Based on the information from the published documents and contracts the reporter came to a conclusion that the secret experiments are carried out in 25 chemical laboratories all over the world, including Ukraine and Georgia. And Porton Down is one of the main participants of this American project.
The investigator states that here they continued animal testing of Ebola, green-monkey disease, encephalitis, anthrax, chemical warfare gases, such as mustard and choking gas, and the nerve agents VM and VX. Since 2005, 122,000 animals have been used in experiments at Porton Down. The lab received 40 million dollars from Pentagon to experiments with chemical warfare agents. Considering that, it's no wonder that the British and American partners in NATO and EU unanimously rejected the Russian initiative of a joint investigation of the Salisbury incident.
At the OPCW executive board meeting, 15 states argued against the Moscow's proposition. Only six supported it. Moreover, 17 countries, despite strong pressure from Britain and the US made no pronouncement on the vote, preferring to remain neutral, therefore proving that it's impossible to deceive the whole world.
Alexander Yakovenko: "The world just doesn't understand what happened here, because there aren't any publicly presented facts. And it's difficult to rely only upon some intelligence data, which cannot be disclosed. Secondly, as I said, there is a split in society, the side, which, as they say, is free to express oneself on social media doesn't believe the official version. So I'm very interested, professionally, how long the British political system can undergo, can withstand such political stress".
The poll, conducted by the Russian Embassy, shows that 68% of the British believe that the information about the incident in Salisbury will be eventually classified. Alexander Khabarov: The bench, where Sergey and Julia Skripal were found was taken away long ago as an important evidence. But the place is still guarded by the police. According to Scotland Yard, there were more than 1,000 pieces of evidence collected in Salisbury. The victims themselves have started to speak, but there's still no results from the investigation.
Where is the evidence of Russia's guilt? The Europeans seem to be among those who are not ordained into the secret deals between London and Washington. And they start to demand explanations.
Gernot Erler, Representative for Russian Affairs of the German government: "The director of the lab said that there is no way to determine the origin of the toxic agent. This contradicts the words which we heard from the British politicians and this will certainly increase pressure upon Great Britain".
Bill Durodie, professor, head of the Department of International studies at the University of Bath: "These situations are never resolved by a simple discovery of the truth. The result mainly depends on who manages to convince more of their allies to go along with them. I hardly believe that if some compelling evidence comes up, and Britain and others who supported it were wrong, will admit to it. It's one thing to declare that Russia is an enemy. But it's another to create a situation, where a large number of your own citizens don't trust you. And this creates fundamental problems and instability in the future".
The boycott of the FIFA World Cup in Russia is one of the more popular ideas among the British political elite. But the threat of the scary Russians, as it turned out had no effect on the British fans.
Britons in the street: "I would like to say to the Russians people that we don't have a problem with you. None whatsoever. The Russians are good people, the British are good people, all of these problems are because of politicians. Did you hear that? I'm more scared of the others, but it's better not to talk about them. Everything will be okay".
There is a parliamentary recess right now in Britain. And the local politicians, after setting up an intrigue with the poisoning in Salisbury, have gone on their holidays. Sergey and Yulia Skripal are isolated from the world. "The Sunday Times" writes that the British intelligence agencies and their American colleagues are discussing an idea to hide them in the USA and change their names there, supposedly to protect them from new attempts. A very logical end to this story, which shows the true intentions of the participants in this international scam.
Alexander Khabarov, Ilya Mordukov, "Vesti nedeli", Great Britain.
