Boris Johnson Threatens Russia With World Cup Boycott Over Salisbury Spy Scandal
"The UK will respond appropriately and robustly". British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is threatening Moscow with a possible FIFA World Cup boycott. Although, currently, he doesn't seem to have a reason for doing it.
His formal reason is the mysterious story in Salisbury involving two poisoned Russians: Sergei Skripal, a former GRU operative who had been convicted of spying for Britain and deported to London, and according to the UK media, a young woman, his daughter, as it was revealed today. They were hospitalized and are in critical condition.
A state of emergency has been imposed in London. Emergency service workers who happened to be at the scene have apparently also been hospitalized. However, the story doesn't interest Britain much. It's much more important to make up a conspiracy theory about "the Russian connection", saying that Skripal had been asking the police to protect him but the sinister Hand of the Kremlin has ultimately reached him.
Naturally, Litvinenko's case was immediately recalled. The situation has been escalating. The official Representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova called it "madness". She asked if London was going to conceal the results of the investigation. The Russian embassy said that the script of yet another anti-Russian campaign has already been written.
Anastasia Efimova will tell us whether we should be surprised.
- Do they want revenge so much that they're refusing to wait for the experts to finish their investigation?
- Some assume that chaos is the reason the crime was committed.
A police cordon and dozens of officers. A sealed yellow-white tent inside. The police used it to cover the bench where Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found in critical condition.
Kier Pritchard, Wiltshire police: "As you are aware we declared a major incident after a man and a woman were found seriously ill this Sunday in Salisbury. They remain in critical condition. Our thoughts and best wishes remain with their families during this difficult time".
Sunday, March 4, 15:47. Skripal and his daughter are walking along the street. Then, according to the British press, they stopped at a cafe. A half an hour later they were on that bench. She was unconscious, and he was, I quote, "disoriented".
James Payne, witness: "It was like her body was dead. Her legs were stiff. You know, like the stiffness of death. She was lying on the ground with her eyes completely white. Her eyes were open wide and white, and she was frothing at her mouth. The man was also turning stiff. His arms lay motionless, and he was just staring straight ahead with a vacant look."
Judging by this evidence, journalists assumed it was fentanyl that caused such a reaction. It's an opioid that's used as anesthesia in hospitals. It can also be misused to get high. Fentanyl is 10,000 times stronger than heroin. An overdose can cause respiratory depression, temporary paralysis, and confusion. According to the witnesses, Sergei and Yulia Skripal were experiencing these very symptoms.
Anna Kulik, Corporate Security Center: "If the poisonous agent was made specifically to keep them alive, to make them go into a coma but remain alive, then it would be an absolute outrage — it would have negative consequences".
Theoretically speaking, the victims could have taken fentanyl on their own. But it's highly unlikely that the father and his daughter would have taken a fatal dose during their Sunday walk. They were likely poisoned. But who did it?
Yuri Knutov, military historian: "The MI6 didn't need Skripal anymore, he had no value. So they decided to sacrifice him to launch a new anti-Russian controversy. They disposed of the man themselves, blamed Russian intelligence, and used him to start a political conflict. It was all done to launch a political confrontation".
And it worked perfectly. The British press is immediately hot on Russia's trail, ignoring evidence and common sense. Skripal didn't deny that he had spied for the UK. He spent several years in prison. After he was deported, he led a quiet life. He didn't know any Russian secrets and certainly posed no threat to national security.
Dmitry Kovtun, witness in Litvinenko's case: "For many years, the media has been an asset of Western intelligence. We all know that. Russia is blamed for everything that occurs in the West, be it a hurricane or a cold front".
Curiously enough, while playing on the incident and blaming Russia, London still hasn't made an official statement. Today, our embassy even had to address the Foreign Office to inquire about the actual situation and stop the name calling. Instead of an answer, we have Boris Johnson's innuendos encouraging the boycott of the FIFA World Cup.
Even though there's never a punishment without a crime, Britain's newest work of conspiracy fiction might make the UK change the rules.
- That was Anastasia Efimova reporting on Britain's latest conspiracy fiction craze.