Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said that the United Kingdom is whipping up anti-Russian hysteria while the state TV went further, accusing Britain of poisoning double agent Sergei Skripal as part of a special operation designed to spoil Russia’s hosting of the soccer World Cup this summer.
Mr. Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, have been in hospital in a critical condition since March 4 when they were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in the southern English cathedral city of Salisbury.
In a broadcast on Sunday, Russian state TV suggested that Britain itself had poisoned Mr. Skripal to upset the soccer World Cup which Russia is hosting in June and July. “They tried to pin the blame on Russia, but if you think it through the poisoning of the GRU (military intelligence) colonel was only advantageous to the British,” Dmitry Kiselyov, the country’s top pro-Kremlin presenter said.
“An excellent special operation,” said Mr. Kiselyov. “Skripal is cheap expendable material,” he said.
Meanwhile, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May was on Monday to brief Parliament on the investigation into the nerve agent attack, and one senior lawmaker expected her to point the finger of blame at Moscow.
The chairman of the British Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Tom Tugendhat, said the attack looked like state-sponsored attempted murder and he thought Ms. May, who chaired a meeting of top Ministers and security officials, would say Russia was responsible. “Frankly I would be surprised if she did not point the finger at the Kremlin,” Mr. Tugendhat told BBC radio.
