Salisbury response 'will haunt May' says Putin aide
RUSSIA’S ambassador to Britain has said Theresa May’s claim that Russia poisoned a former spy and his daughter may come back to haunt her in the same way that the Iraq War has dogged Tony Blair.
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Speaking at the Oxford Union Alexander Yakovenko denied Russian agents attempted to assassinate Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with the nerve agent Novichok.
Mr Yakovenko said: “I had good relations with Tony Blair and I remember when he asked apologies for the British people that he trusted the British intelligence when he took a decision on Iraq, where there were no nuclear weapons.
“He said that it was a mistake – ‘I trusted them, and I took my decisions based on the wrong information.’
“I’m not going to say that this time will come but from my point of view the situation is similar.”
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We believe that she is not free and she is isolated
Mr Yakovenko, 63, accused Britain of violating international law in its handling of the investigation by denying Russian security services access to the Skripals, who were found slumped over on a bench in Salisbury on March 4.
He claimed Russian officials have sent around 60 requests for information to the Foreign office with no reply.
The ambassador also echoed Kremlin claims that Yulia Skripal was speaking under duress when she addressed the media for the first time last week.
He said: “We believe that everything that is done is done under pressure. We believe that she is not free and she is isolated.”
Mr Yakovenko said the fact that the Russian statement signed by the 33-year-old during the address “was exactly the same” as an English version was evidence that the words were not her own.
He described the supposed false allegation as “a huge provocation against us in order to undermine the reputation of Russia”.