The Tony Blair Rule: The Truth Takes About 15 Years to Come Out, Skripal Countdown Starts Now - Margarita Simonyan

- The main thing is that the government admits it was wrong. And even if something that certainly won't happen does happen we've checked everything: CNN, NBC, FOX, BBC didn't even mention the kid but even if they do write about him the authorities will still claim there was an attack and they responded accordingly. That's the point. Those articles that'll never be written won't influence the opinion of the authorities.

Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT and Sputnik: Zhenya, they organized the attack. Do you want them to admit they were wrong?

 

- Well, Blair admitted he was wrong. The starch case was revealed. At some point it was.

- In 30 years, under the eyes of God, few years before Alzheimer and senile psychosis some of them will remember Evgeny Popov, Olga Skabeyeva, and the humble RT and say "damn, we were wrong," but it won't happen any time soon.

- That's too long to wait. But what are we fighting for then? What for? We've proven we're right.

- I'll tell you what we're fighting for. We're fighting for attention, sympathy, and faith of common people. It's ridiculous to try to prove something to the authorities that organized all that. They already know there was no attack. They'll tell you how it happened in such detail that Poddubny or that kid could never recite. Some common people influence the public opinion more than the authorities. We're trying to reach to them. Take Roger Waters from Pink Floyd you might have mentioned this story who's talking about all this being a sham. These people have no other way of learning the truth except for our media, that's astounding. Today, I talked to a top official of a major international multimedia platform which I can't name and I was so surprised when he told me he'd just realized what happened in Crimea. He had no idea. He understood it because he read about it.

- An American?

- I can't tell you. Let's say he was American. Not a Russian. And in order to be read news have to be written. That's why they're so mad about our RT.

- And repeat 100 times.

- Yeah, 150,000 times. And our Sputnik is the only agency that writes about it in their languages. You're also doing a great job but unfortunately you don't speak English, French, and other languages. That's why they're squeezing us so hard. Britain started seven investigations against us. Seven investigations in a single day. It's been a year since their last investigation against us. Seven investigations were announced at their website after the Skripal case. They even copied the wording of Theresa May when she said that the British media regulator must investigate the activities of Russia Today. And the British media regulator announces that it will conduct that very investigation. They want us to believe that they're unbiased. Fine. We'll believe you.

- But what will we do about the public opinion? How will we capitalize on it in the end? Will people gather and choose other leaders? That would be great. Or what is supposed to happen?

- I might be an optimist but I believe that the truth will eventually overcome. It just must be voiced.

- Few years before Alzheimer?

- It's better than nothing. The truth will overcome on the verge of Alzheimer. It must happen eventually. We're already seeing positive tendencies in some countries. People are electing different leaders. And I will never tire of repeating: Americans elected Trump who kept saying he's going to be friends with Russia. That's one of the reasons he got elected. They elected him because they found his promises appropriate. It's clear that he was also addressing internal issues and specific US aspects like his notorious Wall, but still he said he was going to be friends with Russia and his voters weren't against that, they supported him. Another issue is that the US President doesn't run the show, to put it mildly, and that's why the situation is like it is. But in this case, public opinion actually matters. Not every country is like the US where the president is actually powerless in the current political context and keeps saying that he'd like to do something but the people won't let him as Trump does at press conferences blaming the intelligence for leaking his every word and phone call to the press. And when his term is over, he'll write a book, and we'll discover what was really happening.

- Your statement might be called aggressive. It seems we're fighting for public opinion that will topple the government and elect new rulers who are convenient for Russia. They'll be even more scared of RT now.

- We're fighting so that people discover what really is happening. It's crazy what those White Helmets are doing. A small organization funded by the country that I won't name on the federal television organizes small provocations that rule the world. One day, it must end. Somebody must put an end to this.

- Veterans protest against the Syrian air strike by throwing away their medals. Incredible. They have "veterans for peace" written on their hoodies. That's the public opinion we're talking about.

- The fact that Foreign Office said what you've just quoted is great because knowing how obscure their statements can be I wouldn't be surprised if Foreign Office said something like "this boy Poddubny showed us has been hospitalized and won't be able to speak for the next 45 years but he released a statement where he admits that Russians made him vilify the White Helmets and Poddubny threatened to kill his mother if he hadn't followed his orders." I wouldn't be surprised if they did that. Actually, what we're...

- The boy is luckily close to Poddubny so it's hard for Foreign Office to make claims.

- We get so surprised when we see how the events unfold as if we'd forgotten that it's been happening for a while. You forgot about allegedly poisoning Yushchenko with dioxin.

- We did forget.

- Recently, an interview of the former head of board of inquiry of the Verkhovna Rada was published who investigated the poisoning of Yushchenko. And he said that there was no poisoning. The entourage of Yushenko knew that from the very beginning. His face was scarred after an unsuccessful plastic surgery. But it was convenient to blame Russia for that. And the head of the board of Verkhovna Rada, not State Duma, Rada claims that the samples which were sent to an Austrian laboratory and we remember that an Austrian laboratory confirmed that he'd been poisoned and the whole world went mad just like it's happening now the samples were fake. They added some dioxin to somebody else's blood.

- How many years passed?

- 15 years.

- Tony Blair also apologized 15 years after that story. Everything good takes 15 years to happen. Before elections.

- And the same scenario. Anton Yuriyevich, we're idealists, right? The OPCW will come to Douma and prove there was no chemical attack, right?

Anton Utkin, chemical weapon expert: That's highly likely.

- Touche. Really though, how can the OPCW play into the hands of Britain now?

- Do you mean what Britain can do?

- No, the OPCW. They'll come there and see that there was no attack, so many locals can prove that. Will the OPCW get a new angle on it?

- Look, the OPCW has the Executive Council that includes 41 states which engages in political battles. It also has the Technical Secretariat that's constantly being pulled into some political mess but is continuing to follow its strict rules and procedures while conducting investigations. Don't forget that Syria requested their assistance meaning Syrians will be present during all negotiations, interviews, and sample collections. Moreover, Syrians are supposed to get copies of each sample. They collect a sample, divide it in two, take one half, and leave one half in Syria. There would be some basic control. The OPCW was rumored to have insisted that no Russians were present but this information hasn't been checked. I think Russians will be present anyway. We'll also be able to control the process. Because today, security is ensured by the Russian police. Now, regarding the information we'll receive it's crucial that the OPCW do everything necessary in this situation. If some person had a suspicious symptom and then died from it they should go to the cemetery, dig up the grave, and sample the corpse. They must do everything possible to avoid being accused of not doing enough. Then, they must bring that evidence and those people to the UN. They must fulfill their promise. They must show them to the UN. Go on, sample them.