(Newswire.net— March 16, 2018) — Yullia, 33, and her father Sergei Skripal, 66, who was a former Russian spy and also worked for the West, were discovered unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in Salisbury, in southern England.
British authorities said that the two were poisoned with Novichok, a nerve toxin of Russian origin. UK, France and the US immediately accused Moscow for a brutal act of terrorism and the UK banned more than 20 Russian diplomats. As retaliation, Moscow is preparing to expel British diplomats. US president Donald Trump said Thursday “it looks like Russians did it,” but skeptics say that the clues are too obvious.
While Western media bluntly accuse Vladimir Putin and Russian Intelligence for the Salisbury poisoning, there are voices that strongly doubt that Kremlin is to blame.
The former Labour MP George Galloway told Russia Today’s Bill Dod that Russia wouldn’t leave its signature at the crime scene by using a weapon that was made in Russia. Galloway slammed British PM Theresa May’s fingerpointing at Moscow, saying it all looks like an Iraq scenario.
“Here is the killer question that was not asked by anybody in parliament either on Monday or Wednesday,” Galloway said. “If this Novichok is exclusively Russian, why would Russia choose that weapon to mount a terrorist attack on the streets of Salisbury? They may as well be leaving a pair of boots covered with snow and painting ‘Vladimir Putin was here’ on the nearest wall,” he said.
Calling the accusations “absolutely absurd” Galloway said this reminds him all too well of the media spin on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that was used as an excuse for the invasion of Iraq. After the invasion, no WMD were found, but the country was devastated and its oil reserve was seized.
“I have an absolute conviction that this is exactly the same kind of canard that led us to the disaster of the Iraq war,” Galloway said. He adds that there is no clear motive for Moscow to commit such an act. “In any list of suspects, Russia must be near the bottom because, self-evidently, it has not and cannot benefit from this crime in any way,” concluded Galloway comparing May’s assertions to misleading intelligence reports on WMD in Iraq.
“Just like Iraq and the WMD, this verdict has already been reached before this investigation ever began,” Galloway said.