Nebenzya: "evidence" in Skripal case is full of holes

The number of inconsistencies in the UK investigation’s new findings concerning the Skripal case is through the roof, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, told the UN Security Council during Thursday's session on the issue.

"London needs this story for one purpose only - to start a disgusting anti-Russian hysteria and to get other countries involved in it. The number of inconsistencies and unanswered questions concerning the new British "evidence" is through the roof," he stressed.

Among other things, the diplomat noted that images of the suspects walking along the same corridor (allegedly in the Gatwick Airport) have an absolutely identical date and time, where even fractions of second coincide.

"According to the information voiced by Theresa May, the suspects reached the home of Skripals at approximately noon on March 4, while earlier police reports claim that the Skripals left their house early in the morning and did not come back. So how come they touched the allegedly poisoned door handle of their hosue," Nebenzya asked UN Security Council members.

The high-ranking Russian diplomat also said that the assumption that the toxic agent had been transported in an ordinary bottle of perfume looked weird.

"According to reports by OPCW experts, including those related to Amesbury incident, this substance is very toxic and dangerous, and can be carried only in special reinforced containers. Otherwise, the transporter will be the first to be harmed," he said.

"Everyone who still hopes to find the culprits have already seen quite plainly the British authorities still don't have any evidence on or convincing versions of what happened," Nebenzya added. "Frankly, we've lost the hope, indeed."
New findings in Skripal affair

On Wednesday, UK Prime Minister Theresa May briefed the parliament about the secret services’ conclusions regarding investigation of the March 4, 2018, alleged poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury. The conclusion is they had become targets of a special operation by agents of the Russian military intelligence service GRU.

May claimed the operation "was almost certainly also approved outside […] at a senior level of the Russian state".

Scotland Yard released a package of photos supposedly showing the two Russians who had allegedly poisoned the Skripals. The official story made public by the British authorities suggests the two men entered the country 48 hours before the poisoning. They held official Russian passports issued in the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.

The UK government claims Sergei and Yulia Skripal survived exposure to a nerve agent from the class of agents tentatively codenamed Novichok [a novice or a new arrival, depending on the context]. The incident occurred in Salisbury on March 4, 2018.

The British authorities immediately came up with the allegations that Russia ‘highly likely’ stood behind the poisoning. Moscow strongly denies any assertions regarding the development and production of Novichok-class agents in the former USSR or in the Russian Federation.

Experts from the UK defense science and technology laboratory at Porton Down have been unable to identify the origins of the substance Sergei and Yulia Skripal were exposed to.