Crooked attempt to discredit Russia

POLITICS | DIPLOMACY

By Alexander Polyakov

When a Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal alongside his daughter Yulia were exposed to a toxic substance, London unfoundedly blamed Russia, saying that Moscow "highly likely" had used a nerve agent on the territory of the Great Britain.

After the British Prime Minister's address to the Parliament, this matter was discussed at the UK-initiated open meeting of the UN Security Council and at the 87th Executive Council session of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation  (NATO) allies also began to support London's tales without a second thought. Naturally, world mainstream media spread around this news and, consequently, their biased comments ended up even in the Ugandan press.

Let us try to resolve the problem, avoiding any guesswork, basing only on facts and appealing to the logic and common sense.

First and foremost, Russia has been groundlessly accused in concealing and using a stock of chemical weapons, even though Great Britain and the US were present as the OPCW observers when the last remaining Russian toxic substances were destroyed last year.

Moreover, our "accusers" took the path of propaganda, rejecting de-facto all other numerous tools to resolve the situation in accordance with the international law: either bilaterally in the framework of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters or through the international mechanisms of the OPCW. So far, we have not received any official request on this problem, except unrealistic and expressly insulting ultimatums. Russian proposals to go the civilised way and establish the truth in discussions, in turn, fell on deaf ears of our British partners.

Secondly, Russia has more grounds than anyone else to insist on thorough and impartial investigation, as it is a Russian citizen, Yulia Skripal, who was brutally attacked in a foreign country. However, they do not give us any chance to help her and even to provide her with the consular assistance. Besides, London has declined our official request to access the case materials, including the CCTV recordings, witnesses' testimony and collected samples of the toxic substance.

Given that our "accusers" ignore Russia's openness for a constructive co-operation, leave our requests without a response and do not explore possibilities to handle the problem in the international legal framework, we have a feeling that they are not ready to co-operate with us because they simply do not have any firm evidence.

Unfortunately, the propaganda tools, which the "accusers" have developed recently, are being utilised instead with the purpose to influence the public, which is easily impressed but not as attentive as experts are and is usually not aware of technical details.

We hope that Ugandans, with their characteristic common sense and the sad experience of baseless accusations made by certain former colonial powers against their country, will manage to understand the full picture, separating the truth from the fiction.

The writer is the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Uganda