RT
March 19, 2018
Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed allegations that Russia was behind the early March poisoning of former double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury.
It is “nonsense and absurd to claim that Russia would do anything like that before the elections and the World Cup,” Putin said, touching on the subject for the fist time since the incident. He was responding to a reporter’s question in his campaign headquarters, as early results of Sunday’s presidential election indicated his landslide victory.
“Concerning this tragedy that you’ve mentioned, I learned about it from the media,” Putin told reporters.
He dismissed the theory that it was a military-grade toxic agent that was used in the poisoning, because if that were the case “people, of course, would have died on the spot.”
“It’s an obvious fact, you should simply understand that,” he said.
The Skripals, 66-year-old Sergei and 33-year-old Yulia, were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury on March 4. They remain in hospital, in critical but stable condition.
Moscow is open to working with London to investigate the poisoning, provided the UK is willing, which is not the case at the moment.
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
“We have not seen this so far, but we keep that on the agenda while planning our bilateral work,” Putin said, adding that Russia is ready “to discuss any issues and overcome any difficulties” with London.
Moscow does not possess any chemical weapons stockpiles, Putin said.
“Russia doesn’t have such means, and we have destroyed all our chemical weapons under the supervision of international observers,”he stated, adding that Russia was the first to get rid of its arsenals while other countries “have promised [to do the same], but have not met their commitments yet, unfortunately.”
Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that, contrary to UK…